The purpose of this paper is to examine the current status and challenges to the final disposal of radiocesium-contaminated soil and to explore a theoretical framework for building shared knowledge and collaboration among a wide range of stakeholders. It is difficult to make effective solutions about the issues only by accountability from stakeholders. It is necessary to build common goals for cooperation among stakeholders.

Social networking services (SNS) such as Twitter play an important role in the collective knowledge, consensus of citizens and decision making regarding various countermeasures. In particular, since SNS have great power to communicate information in the context of disasters and pandemics, scientists and administrators are required to understand how people’s collective knowledge and trust are formed through SNS and how to communicate risk and scientific information using SNS. Therefore, a special session entitled “Considering the state of scientific information dissemination during crises in the age of social networking” was held at the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis Japan. Risk and scientific information dissemination using SNS regarding the Fukushima disaster was discussed: characteristics related to information diffusion on Twitter, the evaluation and fact check of information that influenced the evacuation behavior in Fukushima, and recommendations for scientific information dissemination in the age of SNS derived from these research findings. This paper introduces the contents of the presentations and discussions at the session.

In the session of the 35th Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis Japan, the authors shared the significance of the Compendium of Reference Materials on the Grounds for the Establishment of the Environmental Quality Standards (EQSs), practical difficulties in publishing the compendium and measures to solve them, as well as the nature and role of EQSs. Commentators and participants of the session noted the points including 1) there is a need for information dissemination so that the general public can easily understand the meaning of exceeding the threshold such as a standard value, 2) different standards other than EQSs are expected to be included in the contents.

The 24th Fukushima Dialogue, a stakeholder meeting to discuss the future of the recovery phase in Fukushima among the younger generation, was held in Naraha-machi, Futaba-gun, Fukushima Prefecture, in November 2022. Ten participants aged 18 to 35 discussed the current situation and what is needed to improve the situation. It was revealed that the younger generation is eager to engage in the decision-making process directly in the recovery phase.