There is an ongoing debate about how to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). There have been several recent national and international developments, including the publication of an assessment report by the Food Safety Commission and the classification of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) as Group 1 and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as Group 2B as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. At the same time, there have been numerous reports of PFOS and PFOA detected in surface water, groundwater and drinking water. Therefore, a special session entitled “Discussing better regulation on PFAS from the perspective of risk research, part 2” was held at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis Japan. Aiming to have a multifaceted discussion by sharing the initiatives of different actors, this special session included not only the initiatives of the national government and international organizations, but also the industry-academia-government collaboration and the initiatives of the local authorities. This paper presents the content of the presentations made by the speakers in the session and the general discussion.

In this study, we developed a simulation method to estimate the age in months based on data on the month of capture and head-buttocks length of wild boars captured in the Nakajima area of Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture. As a result of the simulation, the average head and body length was estimated to be 95 cm at 12 months of age. This means that the 95 cm head and body length of captured animals can be used as a boundary value to easily distinguish between juveniles (age 0) and adults (age 1 or older) at the capture site. The proportion of age-0 individuals (aged 11 months or younger) to the total number of animals captured in this area was estimated to be 64% by simulation. In addition, the proportion of age-0 animals captured in April and May was 42% and 33%, respectively, which was less than 50%, indicating that adult animals were more likely to be captured in these months. This data will contribute to the planning of the annual trapping plan by clarifying the appropriate season to focus on the trapping of adult animals and to consider the efficient trapping of targeted animals depending on the season. The measurement of head-body length is a relatively simple and socially applicable monitoring method that can be used, for example, by government officials when confirming the number of pests captured.

Safety alerts play a critical role in preventing accidents caused by product misuse, which is often difficult to mitigate through design alone. Despite their importance, the effectiveness of safety alerts in reducing accidents involving consumer products has not been sufficiently examined. Accurate risk assessment is essential for effective accident prevention. To ensure the accuracy of risk assessment, the effectiveness of accident prevention measures should be quantified. This study aims to assess the impact of safety alerts using statistical models. We assess the efficacy of alerting users to accidents resulting from uncleaned microwaves in Japan. We employ the Koyck model, commonly used to evaluate public relations efforts, along with logistic regression analysis. This study employs the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method in parameter estimations. We determine that the likelihood of accidents was reduced by approximately 5.2%–13.2% based on average reporting outcomes. This result is consistent with the effects of safety campaigns in the field of traffic safety shown in previous studies. The study’s results emphasize the importance and effectiveness of government agency-driven public awareness campaigns to address residual risks during the product design phase. However, it was found to be small compared to the accident prevention effects of various safety designs that have already been identified. Such efforts promote the development of more rational and systematic approaches to consumer product safety.

Recently, the value orientations and cultural worldviews concepts have been used increasingly to provide evidence in the research on risk perception and risk communication. However, the reliability of the cultural worldviews as a psychological measure and its impacts in Asian countries remain unclear. This study thus examines the relationship between cultural worldviews and risk perception regarding climate change in Japan. To this end, an online survey of 300 Japanese adults was conducted. The respondents were asked questions regarding risk perception and countermeasures for global warming. The results of path analyses revealed that people with a highly hierarchical cultural worldview perceive a low risk of climate change and engage in behaviors related to mitigation and adaptation for climate change in a limited capacity. However, in Japan, the short version of the individualism–communitarianism scale shows poor reliability. Therefore, further research on this topic is required in the future.

Bousaisi (Disaster prevention advisers) are expected to improve the “disaster prevention capabilities of local communities,” and therefore are expected to be able to carry out awareness-raising activities regarding preparations for possible future nuclear and radiation disasters. However, Bousaisi textbooks do not include content on nuclear and radiation disasters, and no training sessions on nuclear and radiation disaster prevention have been held. Therefore, we have developed a new training program for Bousaisi to acquire knowledge and skills for reducing radiation risks, and we have verified its effectiveness and will report on this here.