“What if the Nankai Trough Earthquake Occurred?”: A Collaboration Between Academia with the Media Using a Newspaper-Making Workshop as a Starting Point to Engage Elementary School Students and Their Parents in Disaster Risk Reduction

Abstract

Japanese citizens are still not fully prepared for an occurrence of the Nankai Trough Earthquake. In the Japanese population, it is not an easy task to achieve disaster preparedness, and to address issues such as a lack of initiative and low priority in disaster risk reduction (DRR). In their attempt to address these issues, the authors focused on Japanese elementary school students and their parents by conducting a lighthearted workshop that encouraged them to initiate risk reduction activities against disasters caused by natural hazards, including the Nankai Trough Earthquake. The workshop was a nonschool-based DRR activity, and it had the following characteristics: (1) the contents were comprehensively developed from a collaboration between researchers in science and engineering with a disaster science communicator and media personnel; (2) innovative contents were communicated in a creative manner; (3) incorporation of a “newspaper-making” activity; and (4) an online format that easily enabled those who did not have a close social network in the community to participate in it. The workshop was conducted with 21 families, and they developed original newspapers on DRR. The findings of the completed newspapers, participant observations, and questionnaire survey revealed that the workshop was an effective starting point for citizens to proactively engage in DRR, including the Nankai Trough Earthquake.