Abstract
This study aimed to analyze the social factors responsible for community disaster prevention
activities in sediment disasters in Japan and Taiwan. It was found that in Japan, community
disaster prevention activities are continuing, centered on these historical and institutional systems
and plans. In Taiwan, ordinary citizens cooperate with the stakeholders as government and
experts to establish the community disaster prevention system. Therefore, both countries could
learn valuable lessons from each other. Japan could learn from Taiwan how to shrink the gap
between governments, experts and local residents, while Taiwan could learn from Japan how to
institutionalize community disaster prevention and planning activities for the unsustainable
activities problem.