In this paper, we introduce our two years' experience of Citizen's Study Group of Coastal Levee in Kesennuma City, Miyagi prefecture. After the Tsunami in March 11^th, 2011, Miyagi Prefectural Government planned to build gigantic coastal levees along the Tsunami destroyed coastal lines together with National Government. There are pros and cons among this construction among not only fishermen, residents of coastal areas, but also people of all affected area. As we thought that we needed to know about the plan of coastal levee from the neutral point of view, we built a study group.

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The 2012 Codex Alimentarius Commission, an international food standard setting body, saw the adoption of Maximum Residues Level (MRL) of veterinary drug called Ractopamine by slim voting, a rare occasion for Codex which emphasizes consensus based decision-making. The paper shows that although there was indeed scientific debate on the safety of Ractopamine, the underlying reason for this controversy is the recurrent “factors other than science” (or “the other legitimate factors”).Though science plays preeminent role in Codex decision making, only some factors other than science are explicitly recognized (i.e.; economic consideration and feasibility etc.) and such factors as consumer concerns and preference, which some countries emphasize, are not documented. The paper demonstrates that these underlying factors, although not explicitly, influenced the debate of MRL indirectly and made the prospect of consensus difficult. It presents several policy options in face of such issue and explores merits and demerits of each option. Based on that analysis, it suggests that adoption of standards by making efforts for seeking ZOPA (zone of possible agreement) that allows some flexibility for compromise rather than resorting to zero-sum resolution would prove to have less negative side-effect on the role of international standard in the long run.

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This research investigated two issues on smoking risk in controversial argument of previous academic journals. First issue is smokers' evaluation of the cumulative nature on the smoking risk. Some authors insisted that smokers overestimate the cumulative nature of the smoking risk and, as a result, underestimate the short term smoking risk. This research shows the tendency that both smokers and nonsmokers do not overestimate the cumulative nature of the smoking risk. however, smokers underestimate the short term smoking risk than nonsmokers. Second issue is smokers' recognition of the qualitative nature on the smoking risk. This research clarified that smokers and nonsmokers alike recognize the seriousness of getting lung cancer. These result partly support assertion that smokers are smoking with fully understanding on the smoking risk, but partly did not.

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This study investigated whether there is a possibility that a catastrophic accident alters determinants of users' trust in risk managers in railways. A questionnaire survey of 2,060 railway users was conducted online via the Internet. Participants in the survey were divided into two groups, with only one group being asked to assume the occurrence of a catastrophic accident, and the data from two groups were compared. A model assumed that perceived value similarity, fairness and ability determine trust, and then path coefficients were compared by structural equation modeling. The results showed that the most important factors in determining trust differ between the situations before and after the catastrophic accident. Practical implications of the results are discussed.

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