The purpose of this study was to clarify (1) evacuation behavior under the limited number of staff at night, (2) responses until lifelines were restored, and (3) relationships with local residents and the local government from the actual damage of "Elderly housing with supportive services" during the Kumamoto earthquake. The survey was conducted by interviewing four cases in Kumamoto City. The results are as follows. (1) Unlike in the daytime, immediately after the disaster at night, less of staff, about one or two on the night shift, responded to the situation. (2) There were cases where food and drinking water were not prepared daily. In cases where there was no or insufficient stockpiling, support was received from the same corporate project or sister corporations. (3) Regarding the acceptance and support of local residents and support from the local government, a different business operators had different ideas. On the other hand, there were cases where the local residents who accepted the evacuation support participated in the evacuation support in the staff system with few night shifts.

This study examined the shopping behavior of older persons who have been issued a Certification of Support Needs through Japan’s Long-Term Care Insurance Act. Result: first, while most of the interviewees were physically able to access shopping facilities, some reported difficulties in finding and carrying goods, and consideration for actual satisfaction of shopping needs is required. Second, as a result of the decline in physical and mental functioning, as well as perceived negative change in physical appearance, many interviewees were less inclined to go shopping. However, some utilized shopping as an opportunity to help their friends despite the difficulty experienced going outside, and attention should be paid for satisfying their wish to help others. Third, self-reliant coping behaviors have limitations due to onset of frailty, and thoughtful and appropriate assistance is indispensable. Furthermore, hesitancy to accept assistance beyond their original shopping purposes has been observed and this hesitency should be diminished, and interviewees and surrounding people’s understanding on assistive device for dealing with difficulty in going outside together seemed to be important.

How would persons with auditory agnosia respond to a broadcast without chimes for alert? To answer this question, two experiments were conducted: one with natural voice recordings made for “reading novels” without chimes, and the other with “visual stimuli and single digit arithmetic” without chimes. A total of 100 people participated in the experiment, 65 of whom had auditory agnosia and 35 of whom were non-impaired or unaware of their disability (henceforth, “nonimpaired”). The results of the experiment without chimes, and the previous experiment with chimes, found significant differences between the non-impaired and severely impaired people subjects with and without the chime. Assuming the non-impaired persons understood the linguistic meaning with a minimum score or better, about 25 % of the mildly- and about 25 % of the severelyimpaired subjects understood the linguistic meaning without chimes, whereas in the experiment with chimes, more than 50 % of the mildly- and about 25 % of the severely-impaired subjects understood the natural voice linguistic meaning. It was demonstrated that with the addition of chimes, more persons with auditory agnosia can understand the linguistic meaning of a disaster broadcast.

In Japan, the number of people requiring care in their daily lives has been increasing due to a declining birthrate and an aging population. However, there are many small businesses that provide care taxi to support the movement of people who need nursing care, and they are not able to adequately meet the needs of users during times when demand is concentrated, such as hospital reception hours. On the other hand, the introduction of universal design taxis has progressed in general taxis, and making it easier for wheelchair users to use them. Thus, in this study, we grasped the changes in the use of care taxis over time, and clarified the fact of the regular occurrence of refusals at the time of reservation. In addition, as an improvement measure when a care taxi cannot be reserved, we proposed a short relief system that utilizes JPN TAXI operated by a general taxi operator, and grasped the intention of use of care taxi users. Then, the possibility of utilization was shown by the relationship between supply and demand of JPN TAXI.

The purpose of this study is to clarify the problems of sound in residence as perceived by children with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities and their families, and to summarize them as basic materials for improving the living environment. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,405 parents of children with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities. The results showed that about 60% of the children had noises that they hated, specifi cally, “the sound of vacuum cleaners and hair dryers” and “the sound of motorcycles and cars running outside” were the highest ranked. Among “infants and elementary school children,” “the sound of vacuum cleaners and hair dryers” was the most disliked, regardless of the severity of intellectual disability, while “the sound of motorcycles and cars running outside” was disliked by a high percentage of “junior high and high school students” with severe intellectual disabilities, and “the sound of thunder” by a high percentage of those with mild disabilities. In addition, regardless of the age of the children or the severity of their disabilities, the top sounds that troubled the families were “loud or strange voices” and “the sound of jumping or running around” by children.

Nowadays, it is an urgent issue to enhance leisure activities for older adults. Furthermore, SNS that provides communication opportunities beyond the restrictions of space and movement has become widespread, and its advantages have been recognized. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to clarify the relationship between the use of SNS and communication and the satisfaction of leisure activities for older adults. As a result, overall communication satisfaction was important as a factor to increase the satisfaction of leisure activities. In addition, since the element of SNS has confi rmed as a component of overall communication satisfaction, it revealed that the use of SNS as communication may indirectly improve satisfaction of leisure activities.

This study analyzed 16 evacuation cases of vulnerable people in the Shimobara district, Soja City during the heavy rain event of July 2018. At the stage of disaster perception, mutual interference between the means of getting information, such as TV and Yobikake (Yobikake is taking care of vulnerable people by visiting or calling them), and due to the time characteristics of night disasters, awakening sleeping vulnerable people or preparing them for evacuation before sleeping were all issues. Regarding the movement to the upper fl oor, even in a 2-story house, it may be diffi cult for vulnerable people to move to the upper fl oor due to deterioration of physical ability. It has become clear that the thought that “It is safe if I get to the second floor” can be a factor that promotes movement to the upper fl oors, but it can also be a factor that hinders the start of evacuation.

Housing districts in Japan face the problems of a rapidly declining and aging population. This study aims to investigate the issues of future population decline and aging in housing districts nationwide. The first was to understand the progression of population decline and aging by population size. The second was to analyze the relationship between the population decline / aging population and spatial indicators. Results showed that the population decline / aging population is more severe in small-scale housing districts. In contrast, the aging population is more serious in large-scale housing districts. Furthermore, it clarified that low convenience was an issue for small districts, while the high detached houses were an issue for large districts.