This paper uses the case of disaster prevention activities in Nagoya to consider the potential of voluntary organizations in local governance run by the voluntary and public sectors. To this end, the paper first traces how voluntary organizations and local governance are developed, and then shows the functions, problems and geographical characteristics of that local governance.

The recent voluntary activities related to disaster prevention in Nagoya derive from experiences of voluntary activities in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in Kobe in 1995. Many people in Nagoya were involved with voluntary activities in Kobe, and some of them established an NPO in Nagoya to maintain continued support for victims and to prepare for future disasters based on the knowledge gained by ‘studying the affected area.’ Then a massive flood struck the Nagoya area in 2000. From this experience, the government of Nagoya City recognized the importance of voluntary activities at times of disaster, and launched a training program for coordinators of disaster volunteers in 2002, which was outsourced to the NPO. As the city government was not well informed about voluntary activities, the NPO was able to conduct the program based on its own knowledge and ideals. This program triggered the establishment of more community-oriented groups for disaster prevention in Nagoya. In parallel, these groups and the NPO tried to develop a relationship between voluntary organizations and the public sector to more effectively conduct their activities. Eventually, a collaborative framework (local governance) on disaster prevention between the voluntary and public sectors was established in 2005.

This governance provides support for afflicted people at times of disaster, and contributes to disaster prevention activities in normal times in Nagoya. Institutionally, the geographical area of the governance corresponds to the territory of the city, but the governance has links to voluntary organizations and supports affected areas outside Nagoya. Knowledge and information acquired through external relationships and activities outside Nagoya are used in activities in Nagoya. The reason why the local governance constructed these links was because this governance was constructed mainly on the initiative of the voluntary organizations, and so the principles behind their activities, such as ‘studying the affected area,’ can be maintained.

Through these findings, this paper argues that voluntary organizations have the potential to take key roles in constructing and managing local governance run by the voluntary and public sectors, without losing their autonomy.

In 2017, the City of Nagoya announced a comprehensive incentive zoning system that provides floor-area ratio premiums for public use locations, as well as open space creation and lot consolidation. This study aims to show these policy effects in the downtown area by means of simulations on both indoor and outdoor populations. In this paper, we newly explore the two population estimation models fitted to the mobile phone location data, and also visualize the 3D built-up downtown features under each policy scenario by extending the existing simulator on 3D modeling software (Rhinoceros/Grasshopper).