The process industry in Japan achieved the safest position for production in the world in the middle of 1980s. However, some companies caused serious incidences from 2000. Almost all companies have taken attestation of popular management systems in connection with safety in the world or Japan. However, such management systems cannot prevent big incidents. Some companies have not made entire process safety management system which has clear and well-structured functions beyond all of the popular management systems and companies have not made its management respectable. This paper explains the concept of safety management system and plant life cycle engineering from the design based on the foundations based on risk evaluation.

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The author has made efforts to establish risk communication in the nuclear power industry since the JCO criticality accident which happened in 1999 and was the first case in Japan that residents had to evacuate. Some people who are in the nuclear power industry and national and local government understood the importance and the usefulness of risk communication both for local residents and their own business. Others, however, thought it troublesome, costly, and useless for their organization and nuclear safety. I think, unfortunately, several experiences after the Fukushima accident force them to hesitate at communicating risks with the public more and more. I will discuss why and how risk communication of nuclear technology is difficult, and what activities people begin to treat health and environmental risks of radioactive substances

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People make a synthetic judgment to various risks. As for research of Risk communication has been continued for each risk for every area of studies. However, the human beings are surrounded by many risks and are alive to the modern society which cannot but make a judgment synthetically. The Great East Japan Earthquake showed the limit of existing Risk communication studies.

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The information available to the public following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident was found to be confusing. In particular, expert opinions were varied on safety and danger with regard to the effects of low-dose radiation exposure, which perplexed the public. Politicians and the mass media insisted that the irrational behavior of the public caused unnecessary damage. However, the public was unable to understand the radiation health risk; therefore, it was natural that feelings of uncertainty intensified affective reactions, which in turn invited chaos. The public worried about food and water contamination in spite of the low levels of monitoring data. This is the reason the government set very low regulation values for radioactivity in foods and drink without consideration of the principle of optimization that the International Commission on Radiological Protection had recommended. Although the concept of optimization is very important for understanding and managing risks after the disaster, the government and many scientists did not explain this adequately. I believe that the provision of various kinds of information on risk and the socioeconomic effects of various activities could enhance the interest of the public on radiation risk and its management strategy, and contribute to the understanding of the concept of optimization.

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This paper discusses a general framework for examining the structure and the function of scientific literacy, which is an important element of risk literacy. There are five layers of literacy: (1) basic literacy for communication in documents; (2) functional literacy in everyday life and the workplace; (3) scientific and mathematical literacy, and media and Internet literacy for students and citizens; (4) civil literacy for citizenship; and (5) academic and research literacies for professionals and researchers. This paper focuses on the concept of scientific literacy as informed by Baltes’s five criteria of wisdom (Baltes & Smith, 2008): factual knowledge, procedural knowledge, contextualization, value-goal relativism, and recognition and management of uncertainty. In addition, scientific, media, and mathematical literacies are basic elements of risk literacy, as civil literacy is for citizenship. Risk-literate citizens can understand risk information and manage their risk. Four methods for improving the scientific and risk literacies of the public are discussed: science education, science communication by mass media, and practices of local and Internet communities.

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