This article discusses the influence of the Great East Japan Earthquake on national land planning in Japan. Just before the earthquake occurred, the National Spatial Planning Act mainly focused on population decline and climate change, while disaster prevention and reduction were also included in main strategies. After the triple disaster in March 2011, anti-disaster topics became more significant in the strategies but remained varied based on region. The article then argues that the regeneration of damaged areas, which had already aged and hollowed out even before the earthquake, can be classified into three goals, i.e. restoration of former situation, adjustment to negative but realistic future, and exploration of new growth. Finally, it concludes that regeneration should be redefined in relation to population decline.

Japan is highly exposed to natural disasters, and we are experiencing a rapid decline in population. But we have invested heavily in rural areas to establish infrastructure for preventing and mitigating disaster risks. If we continue this investment policy in an era marked by decreasing population, our disaster countermeasure system will prove to be very inefficient. We must change our investment policy in the near future to reconstruct the dangerous zones in metropolitan areas to benefit agglomeration economies.

Until now, urban disaster prevention plans have mainly focused on strengthening the structure of buildings and evacuation plans. However, securing daily supplies after evacuation will be an issue in the future.

In this paper, we look back on the issues occurring, and countermeasures taken, in past earthquake disasters, organize a logistics concept for providing emergency relief supplies, and show three related countermeasures. Finally, we clarify a plan to strengthen roads and urban facilities assuming the need for emergency relief supplies.

For those affected by disaster, the loss of community is a major issue in their post-disaster lives. Therefore, succession of community has frequently been carried out following a disaster. Nevertheless, the loss of communities is still a problem in the reconstruction process underway since the Great East Japan Earthquake. A net outflow of residents from the affected areas has led to a weakening of the local communities. Based on the above awareness of the issues, this article focuses on the impact of large-scale reconstruction projects as a hindrance to community succession, sorts out the conditions under which communities are inherited, confirms the idea of emphasizing human life that justifies large-scale reconstruction projects, and considers the potential of reconstruction that respects community succession and human life.

Urban development planning efforts are spreading nationwide based on lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Residents and governmental organizations are working on an urban development plan for the town of Minami in Tokushima Prefecture, where there is concern that a huge Nankai Trough earthquake and tsunami will occur in the near future. The government is working on relocating public facilities to higher ground and formulating urban development plans for all towns. Autonomous disaster prevention organizations are working on the development of residential areas on higher ground and the formulation of an urban development plan by residents. However, the problem is that neither the government nor the residents have sufficient financial support for urban development planning. Therefore, in order to promote such planning nationwide, a system must be created that includes budgetary measures to realize implementation.

This paper discusses regional cooperation and disaster management for the prevention of water-related disasters. The importance of river basin flood control has been pointed out as a countermeasure against water-related disasters, and regional planning and cooperation for river basin areas are necessary. On the other hand, in the living area, the reorganization of urban structure based on the Compact Plus Network concept assumes the factor of population decrease. Reorganization must work in conjunction with the land-use policy, such as the arrangement of urban functions and residential guidance with inter-municipal cooperation. In order to create a sustainable region, it is necessary to link ecological and watershed areas with wide-ranging cooperation in living areas, and for this purpose it is important to revisit the watershed area concept proposed in the Third National Comprehensive Development Plan. Watershed areas have the potential to link natural spaces with social and economic spaces.

As disasters cannot be completely prevented, it is necessary to reduce the extent of disasters as much as possible and secure post-disaster resilience. The purpose of infectious disease control is the same. The aim of this paper is to find an approach to disaster-related legislation that can meet these conditions. The paper gives an overview of the disaster countermeasure framework, clarifies the revisions of disaster-related laws and systems in response to a series of disasters in recent years, and discusses the issues of those disaster countermeasures. The COVID-19 pandemic is then discussed as a disaster, and its countermeasures are examined. In conclusion, the disaster legislation in the era of COVID-19 points out that countermeasures for natural disasters and infectious diseases are converging in their content, but their actual operations remain fragmented.

Natural disasters occur every year in Japan. It is very difficult to relocate tourism resources and facilities when they are affected by a disaster. Therefore, there are three roles for an administration responsible for a tourist destination in terms of disaster prevention and mitigation. The first is to develop a regional disaster prevention plan for residents and tourists. The second is to implement the plan giving full consideration to past disasters and methods of disaster prevention and mitigation. The third is to secure a budget for disaster prevention and mitigation. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic serves as a reminder to each tourist destination of the need for a BCP, assuming the worst risks, including no incoming flow of tourists. There are two key points in making a BCP for a tourist destination. The first is the diversity of target markets, such as international or domestic tourists. The second is the diversity of products which will appeal to anyone at any time. BCPs that assume the worst-case scenario could make tourist destinations sustainable, quickly restoring tourism demand no matter what disasters occur.

The purpose of this report is to propose a new method of housing reconstruction for future large-scale disasters similar to the Nankai Trough Earthquake. Rather than the traditional method of housing reconstruction, this new method proposes a continuous-recovery residential area plan. This new recovery plan is designed to address two issues: first, the emotional and financial burden on the disaster victims as well as the very high cost of building and removing temporary housing. The other is planning a Compact Plus Networked city to build a sustainable society. The new continuous-recovery residential area plan will focus on planning for the conversion of temporary housing to recovery housing for continued use in the residence induction area of the location normalization plan. In an era of declining population, it will be difficult for the government to bear the cost of reconstruction projects after future large-scale natural disasters, with the cost as high as in the past yet a smaller tax base to fund it. A new recovery plan that can reduce the cost needs to be considered.

Tokushima Prefecture faces risks from the Nankai Trough earthquake and the earthquake caused by the Median Tectonic Line. The prefecture enacted an ordinance to help reduce the potential damage caused by these earthquakes. This paper focuses on the process of enacting this ordinance and the land use optimization for disaster mitigation. Although there are no implementation cases of land use optimization to date, it can be said that process works well due to this ordinance. On the other hand, it is necessary to review the ordinance to resolve some outstanding issues regarding implementation. Tokushima Prefecture is doing its utmost to build a society that is resistant to earthquakes.

This paper measures the social impact of regional theater by considering the case of the Shiinomi Theater, which was built by the local government and has been operated by a non-profit organization (NPO) in the city of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. This small theater, featuring 108 seats, focuses on dramatic art, providing a variety of activities from outreach seminars to an international festival. More than 20% of the city's residents are estimated to have visited this theater and more than half of them recognize it and its activities. Theatergoers belong to relatively high-income households, and there are physical and time constraints that limit visits to the theater. Nevertheless, based on the results of the questionnaire survey targeting local residents, the benefits from the theater are positively perceived by a wide range of the city's population. According to the outcomes derived from a logic model, the theater provides such social benefits as serving as a window to the international world, contributing to community development and capacity building, as well as diffusing theater culture, for both visitors and residents.

As rural areas in Japan are suffering from aging populations and abandoned houses, along with the out-migration particularly among young people, local governments with many depopulated areas have been promoting positive rural life activities and experiences, subsidies for housing, and employment support for migrants moving to rural areas. Previous studies focused on the effectiveness of maintaining personal community networks between current residents and newcomer residents, however, networks may differ in terms of the subjective personal community network of surrounding mutual environments. Therefore, in order for newcomer residents to solidify their intent to settle in a rural area, this article focuses on the psychological mechanism of both current and newcomer residents as a factor of social support. It shows that newcomer resident intent to settle is determined by several factors. The result, based on multilevel analysis with M-plus, revealed that the variable of subjective personal community network with other current residents (i.e., within level) had a positive effect on the level of newcomer residents with intent to settle (i.e. between level).