Ensuring urban safety against natural disasters is of utmost importance. We, therefore, conducted research on a mitigation technology against earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, tidal waves, fires, and sediment disasters around urban areas. We aim to develop an evaluation method of disaster prevention performance and an evaluation index for disaster prevention in order to effectively execute risk management within a city. Further, we aim to develop a method to build an urban disaster prevention plan that acts as a countermeasure against all types of natural disasters. The estimation of disaster prevention performance using risk index is defined as the product of the frequency of occurrence of natural disasters and a potential of disaster prevention in the area. The disasters prevention performance of an area is defined as the total sum of potential for disaster prevention against all the disasters likely to occur in that area. It is possible to compare multiple disasters by calculating the expected annual loss resulting from each disaster. To illustrate an example of the research, this study explains a method for evaluating the damage to road facilities in order to maintain a functional road network when an earthquake occurs.

In about 3000 Japanese local government, it is progressing steadily towards construction of an electronic local government. In this paper, while outlining the process to this digital government, the present condition about that information security is examined. Moreover, it has acquisition of an information security policy, an information security evaluation system, and information security audit from the point of view about present condition and the future as a measure of an information security. And it works on the policy of the information security to a small-scale local government.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the risk analysis and management of medical treatment in Japan.

With the recent increase in aged population, risk management in Japanese medical treatment has shifted its focus toward the high-risk population.

In 1990, the Society for Risk Analysis, U.S.A. proposed to form an association to discuss risk analysis with Japanese researchers at the Tsukuba University. In that year, the American researchers presented a dynamic structure of the comprehensive way of thinking in risk management. The precise structure and the practical application of the important aspects have been compared and discussed.

Drawing from the results of these debates, this paper discusses risk analysis and management in Japanese medical treatment.

This paper examines the determination of a policy area in light of external (institutions) and internal factors (actors) in the policy formulation process. The process is divided into four stages: (1) recognition of the policy problem, (2) establishment of an agenda, (3) planning and adoption of policy proposals, and (4) implementation and evaluation of the policy. The study is based on the Green Employment Project and the Special Grant System for Urgent Creation of Local Employment of 2001. A field linking forestry management and employment has become a policy area in which various actors, including the government and relevant stakeholders, are involved.

Management by objective (MBO) is believed to be one of the key issues in government reinvention in the past few years. However the factors in an MBO system that contribute to positive performance in a government have not been verified. This paper shows a method of introducing an MBO system by means of a questionnaire survey among municipal officials. According to this analysis, the duration of an MBO interview between managers and subordinates and the understanding and consent of the human resources management system seem to be of crucial importance for an effective MBO system. Moreover, in local governments, an MBO system seems to function even in those divisions in which officials have been unable to clearly define their objectives.