The Fukushima nuclear accident has posed multiple risks including non-radiation health effects (e.g., nursing home evacuation, lifestyle diseases, and psychological distress), stigma, economical damage, splitting of community, and ethical issues. On the other hand, life expectancy in Fukushima after the accident was longer than that before the accident. Total fertility rate in the present has been also recovered to be higher than that before the accident. Subjective emotional wellbeing of young evacuees was comparable to or higher than that of the whole Japanese. Fukushima is never tragic, whereas we have still several issues to resolve. Risk science has an orientation of solution-focused approach against various interdisciplinary risk issues and its challenges in Fukushima are of special significance. Risk science has a role in development of cooperative wisdom among communities. Furthermore, the antecedent achievements will advance the global society.

Over 200 cases of juvenile thyroid cancer have been found in Fukushima since 2011. This phenomenon is now regarded to be caused by overdiagnosis of self-limiting thyroid cancer which exists at high prevalence in the young. The overdiagnosis was caused by the thyroid screening with ultrasonography (US), which also caused overdiagnosis in Korea. For many reasons, the thyroid screening program in Fukushima is still ongoing without any changes. The majority of residents in Fukushima still request to continue the program since they are not informed about the harms of this program. Since the US examination is performed as one of the school program, the rate of participation by schoolchildren is over 90%, which has resulted in expansion of the disaster. The Fukushima thyroid cancer disaster provides us a valuable opportunity to reconsider about medical ethics.

This workshop drew on Lancaster University’s research on the role of children and young people in disaster recovery and resilience building. The session explored some of the creative, participatory methods used on the UK Economic and Social Research Council project, Children, Young People and Flooding: Recovery and Resilience (2014–16) and the European Commission H2020 project CUIDAR: Cultures of Disaster Resilience among Children and Young People (2015–18). These methods encouraged children to explore their local environment, to share and reflect on their knowledge and experiences and to contribute as actors to community resilience building. The workshop introduced educational and community engagement materials the Lancaster team has developed from the research data, including the ‘Flood Snakes & Ladders’ simulation game, which invites participants to walk in the shoes of flood-affected children and thereby consider how to plan better for future disasters.

Legitimacy was defined as approvability of own or others’ rights in decision about NIMBY facilities. According to the approval-acceptance model, people’s acceptance intentions of public decisions would be determined by legitimacy based on perceived substance, institutional substance, and resentment. The present study examined effects of debate by various actors on mutual evaluation of their legitimacy and acceptance intentions. In a simulation gaming (Who & Why Game II), participants were allocated to 4 actors, such as local residents, experts commission, national majority, and government agency around high-level radioactive waste storage facility. They debated on who should decide whether or not a region is appropriate for the site proposed for the facility. Legitimacy was a primary determinant for acceptance of decisions consistently with the above model in both before and after the debate. The legitimacy of local residents was evaluated highest, moreover, effects of debate were not observed differently from evaluations of other 3 actors. Persistency of residents’ legitimacy was discussed theoretically.

Decontamination that removes radioactive material spread by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident has been conducted to decrease the impact of radioactivity on human health and the environment. During this process, certain municipalities have devised ways to increase the residents’ sense of procedural justice. However, it has been suggested that certain residents did not completely appreciate these procedures. An online survey was conducted to investigate factors influencing the perceived procedural justice of decontamination. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that various factors were associated with perceived procedural justice, which was based on the perceived necessity for decontamination. Moreover, inappropriate procedures, as well as trust in the government and the operators had an impact on perceived procedural justice in groups indicating both a high and a low necessity for decontamination. Especially, the interpersonal factor and information disclosure increased perceived procedural justice only in the group suggesting a low necessity for decontamination.

In the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM), it is stated that we should achieve the management of chemicals and wastes throughout their life cycle. A legal system for chemicals management, which might have the most significant role in this management, is quite complicated, because it consists of more than 10 statutes overseen by several agencies in most countries. The present legal systems are, therefore, not well structured or systemic enough as an entire system. In this study, we re-examined the statutes or legal systems in 5 developed countries except Asia from systemic perspective and comparative-law perspective, and picked the best practices for the management through the chemicals life cycle, to provide guidance for the Asian countries.