A experiential learning workshop was proposed and conducted at an elementary school, which is a disaster prevention center, utilizing sensors already installed for structural health monitoring. The workshop consisted of an initial vibration test using a paper model, followed by a vibration test using human excitation on an actual building. The workshop was designed to be highly effective as a hands-on learning experience that will be remembered for a long period of time, by linking the paper model experiment with the actual building experiment and by utilizing sensors. The workshop is also expected to increase local residents' awareness of the need for seismic retrofitting and to promote the development of seismic retrofitting in this area, which has a high disaster risk level.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of body size difference on the injury severity from furniture collisions by using finite element analyses. A total of 16 cases were assumed in which a bookshelf collided with a mid-size adult male and a small adult female, and the injury mechanism and bone fracture risk were examined based on contact force, stress, and rib cage deformation. The results showed that the head was at higher risk of depressed fractures regardless of body size, and the rib cage was greatly deformed, when struck by a bookshelf with a door, increasing the risk of rib fractures.

Timelines for flood disaster prevention have been implemented in several hospitals. The transfer of patients for evacuation should be done promptly because of the risk of worsening the patient's condition, which requires a timeline that takes into account the rate of water level rise at a neighboring river. As a simple method for estimating river water level rises, this study 1) first analyzes past Kuma-river water level records, 2) proposes a new estimation method for the time of water level rise based on past water level records and 3) verifies the method by numerical simulations. This study reveals that there was no clear relationship between the magnitude of rainfall and the rate of rise in river water level and the proposed method can assume shorter time of river water level rises than the 2020 Kyushu floods.

In recent years, VR technology has been considered as a method to solve the problems of conventional tsunami evacuation behavior analysis. In this study, tsunami evacuation behavior was observed using a walking type VR. The results of experiments conducted with both the walking device and the hand controller were compared to investigate differences in evacuation completion rates, sickness, sense of realism, and changes in awareness of tsunami evacuation. The results revealed the usefulness of the walking device in analyzing tsunami evacuation behavior, but also revealed some issues.

The Nankai Trough Earthquake is expected to cause large-scale damage. As a result, the amount of temporary housing needed by victims whose homes have been damaged will be insufficient. Therefore, evacuation across city and town boundaries is anticipated. On the other hand, the increase in the number of vacant houses has become a social problem in recent years. Therefore, this study focused on the effectiveness of two-area residence in the event of a disaster, and conducted a questionnaire survey of residents living in urban areas and those living in rural areas in Hyogo Prefecture.The results indicate that bi-regional residence could be a potentially useful pre-disaster recovery measure.

In the disaster risk areas designated in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, restrictions on land use have created vast areas of vacant land in coastal areas. In considering the sustainability of the reconstructed disaster-affected areas, it is necessary to make effective use of such land and turn it into resource for the town. In this study, we analyzed the transition and status of land use in disaster-prone areas in Miyagi Prefecture. As a result, land that was used as industrial land before the earthquake was used in the same way after the earthquake and re-urbanized, but land that was used as residential land was difficult to utilize and remained vacant. The study revealed that local industry influences land use in disaster-prone areas.

The factors that inhibit or promote tsunami evacuation are diverse and have been studied in many previous studies.In this study, we summarized the results of these previous papers by KJ method in order to overview the inhibiting and promoting factors of tsunami evacuation. In addition, we compared the inhibiting factors for tsunami evacuation with those for heavy rainfall disasters, using previous studies. The results revealed that: 1) the most common inhibiting factor is underestimation of tsunamis, and the most common promoting factors are recognition of information and advance preparedness; 2) some inhibiting factors do not have a corresponding promoting factor; and 3) differences in the characteristics of heavy rainfall disasters and tsunamis create differences in inhibiting factors for evacuation.

In recent years, the risks faced by companies have become increasingly diverse and complex. Companies are required to implement risk management and BCPs. However, implementing them superficially cannot be expected to be effective. Therefore, this study develops and implements a risk advisor education programme to introduce and embed risk management and BCPs in the enterpreoses, and evaluates its effectiveness. The programme was implemented based on the ADDIE model of ID theory. Learning objectives were set for the three programmes - risk management, BCP and embedding in the organisation - and measurements were repeated before, after and one month after implementation to verify the effectiveness of the training programme, which showed significant improvements.

In this study, we designed a disaster management human resource development program to analyze issues from the viewpoints of others and create solutions, with the aim of improving the local community's mutual aid ability. In the program, based on the "persona method" used in service development and the processes of "systems thinking" and "design thinking", participants test hypotheses from others' perspectives through fieldwork, define problems, and create solution scenarios. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated through classes at junior high school. Before and after the experiment, a rubric-based questionnaire was administered from the perspective of developing human resources for community disaster management, and responses were received from 68 third-year students in 2022 and 75 second-year students in 2023. The results of the questionnaire showed that the "human resource development" aspect of the rubric has increased, and the ability to communicate what they have learned to others has improved. In addition, free descriptions in the questionnaire revealed that the acquisition of others' viewpoints was linked to learning. Thus, the program was shown to have a certain effect on improving the community's ability to help each other.

Thirteen years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the number of employees hired after the disaster is increasing in Kesennuma City Office, Miyagi Prefecture. Since 2021, training sessions are being held to share the experience of the earthquake so that even employees who have no experience responding to disasters can utilize the lessons learned from the disaster to respond to disasters. When considering similar initiatives in a local government affected by a large-scale disaster, the following points may be helpful: securing human resources who can give lectures about their experiences at the time of the disaster, cooperation between the crisis management division and human resources division, and consideration of the occupations of participants.

In Japan, many natural disasters can strike anywhere, therefore the implementation of truly effective disaster education is an important issue. This study investigated disaster education based on the phase-free concept implemented in Naruto City and concluded that truly effective disaster education has been implemented through the knowledge management of the City Board of Education and the proactive development of teaching materials by school teachers.

Learning lessons from past disasters is one of the most important preparations for disaster management. One of the most effective methods of sharing lessons learned is through exercises, but there are some challenges in reducing the difficulty of learning, the amount of work, and the time required. This article aims to develop a discussion-based exercise program as one of the methods of experiential learning. This exercise was aimed at people who do not have enough experience with large-scale disasters, to share the lessons learned with them and inherit to the next generation, and to reduce some challenges of the exercise. As a result of this exercise, the effectiveness of the exercise and the new challenges were confirmed.

This study investigates the relationship between the classification of media consumption and risk perception for infection. To achieve this goal, we conducted the online survey from November 8th to November 14th, 2022. As a result, we collected n=6,841 after screening out inconsistent responses and non-media users. First, we conducted a two-step cluster analysis and identified the main classification of media consumption. Second, we used regression analysis to confirm the relationship between the classification, information exposure, and risk perception of COVID-19 infection. We found two main classifications of media consumption, mass media type, and multi-media type from cluster analysis. Furthermore, the regression analysis showed that the mass media type was more conscious about COVID-19 infection in society.

In May 2021, Japan mandated that municipalities create individual evacuation plans for people needing assistance during disasters. Currently, the development of these individual evacuation plans is underway, but progress is slow. This study utilizes an agent-based model to simulate how community support and the availability of evacuation plans influence responses during disasters. The model considers various scenarios including support from designated supporters, neighbors, or no support at all, and also simulates situations where supporters are unavailable or affected by the disaster themselves. By comparing various unfeasible support scenarios, the model identifies optimal support strategies and demonstrates the impact of community involvement.

This study aims to clarify the issues that can be addressed by conducting individual evacuation drills with people with special needs in evacuation, and to discuss the impact of such drills on community disaster management. The subjects were five persons with special needs in evacuation on Tokashiki Island, Okinawa Prefecture, and the research method was a participant observation survey and categorization of participants' opinions." The results show that individual evacuation drills had an impact on various levels, from the individual to family members and professionals, and the role of the drills was to promote changes in awareness and behavioral patterns, in addition to verifying feasibility of the individual evacuation plan.

The purpose of this research is to present a new methodology in disaster prevention education through the development and practice of simple and inexpensive teaching materials. In recent years, excellent educational methods using advanced ICT technology have been developed, and this research demonstrated a technique for creating a three-dimensional topographical model from contour lines using a transparent plastic container lid. As a result of the analysis, learning effects were confirmed after the course of regional understanding of topography.

In recent years, heat stroke and infectious diseases have become problems, and decentralized evacuation is required as a measure to alleviate the problems of overcrowded shelters. One of the options during a decentralized evacuation is the use of Accommodations. The aim of this study is to clarify the process of realization and the actual situation of using accommodations as evacuation shelters in Nachikatsuura Town, Wakayama Prefecture, where the use of accommodations during disasters was realized through the efforts of local residents. The fact that both residents and accommodations shared the experience of the disaster led to the realization of the agreement. Since then, the town has taken over and developed the agreement to prepare for disasters by utilizing local resources.

The purpose of this research is to use quantitative analysis to examine the importance of nursing care services when considering recovery to achieve a sustainable community in depopulated areas. Additionally, the amount of indirect economic damage to nursing care services will be estimated. Furthermore, the measures for revitalization will be considered. The Oku-Noto area (Wajima City, Suzu City, Anamizu Town, and Noto Town), a depopulated area that suffered the most damage from the “2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake”, was applied in this case study.

This study examines the damage survey of the Hanazawa Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings in Yaizu City, which was damaged by a typhoon. In the damage survey, questionnaires and interviews were conducted to clarify the damage situation at that time and the awareness and behavior of the local residents. The structural soundness of traditional buildings damaged by the landslide was assessed through visual surveys and microtremor measurements. Based on these findings, it was shown that the preservation and improvement operations in the Preservation District functioned organically not only for cultural properties protection, but also for community disaster mitigation.

This paper focuses on the standalone business continuity enhancement plans for small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) institutionalized in 2019. The aim is to assess the effectiveness and challenges of these plans through interviews with stakeholders from government, support organization, and the companies that implemented the plans. The findings indicate that standalone business continuity enhancement plans are easier to develop compared to comprehensive business continuity plans (BCPs) and that SMEs are actively developing these plans as an initial step in disaster preparedness, encouraged by governmental incentives. However, the study also reveals a challenge that few companies advance from these standalone plans to more comprehensive BCPs or collaborative plans.