Abstract
This paper is aimed at providing one of the strategies of reducing casualties in the wake of a Nankai Trough Earthquake.
As a result of an investigation among residents in Mugi Town, Tokushima Prefecture after the 2015 Southern Tokushima Earthquake, authors found that people, especially adults did not properly understand the meaning or how to utilise the Earthquake Early Warnings (EEW) system. If people behave as instructed after encountering the EEW, the casualties in the wake of a Nankai Trough Earthquake will be decreased. To assist and educate in case of such circumstances, the authors proposed introducing EEW related learning materials to a primary school which indicated its enthusiasm in studying disaster mitigation education in Tokushima Prefecture. They practiced with these materials as one of the events during their annual sports day. Members of the community voluntary disaster mitigation organisation joined the event. On that day, the audience made up of adults and pupils together with their parents looked on as the event instructed on the mechanism of seismic waves and understood how to behave in the wake of a Nankai Trough Earthquake. The authors think that this material was effective as a disaster mitigation learning material which the school and the wider community could adopt in the event of an earthquake. In locations that the EEW countdown system had been installed the author collected firsthand evidence of correct response and behaviour from school pupils. This evidence supports the authors’ idea. The authors want to present this educational material of EEW to schools. In expectation of the next Nankai Trough Earthquake, the EEW system would be correctly utilised depending on how the affected understand and respond to the EEW system in the wake of a sudden earthquake event.
