Handbook of Disaster Studies in Japan

Paola Cavaliere is Senior Research Fellow, University of Milan. She holds a BA in Japanese Language and Literature (University of Venice, Italy) and received a double PhD degree in East Asian Studies (University of Sheffield, UK) and Law (Tōhoku University, Japan). Her research interests are in the area of gender, religious civil society and disaster in Japan. She is the author of Promising Practices: Women Volunteers in Japanese Religious Civil Society (2015) and has published extensively on a gendered approach to Japanese faith-based volunteering and disaster, including the COVID-19 pandemic.Junko Otani, DDS, MPH, MS, PhD, is a Professor at the Graduate School of Human Sciences at Osaka University. She also serves as Regional Director of the East Asian Center for Academic Initiatives (Shanghai Office) of Osaka University. She has worked for the World Bank and the World Health Organization. She was awarded the Royal Society of New Zealand fellowship to conduct research in Christchurch at the University of Canterbury in 2013 and the Australian Academy of Science fellowship for School of Population and Global Health, Centre for Disaster Management and Public Safety of the University of Melbourne in 2015. Her publications include Older People in Natural Disasters (2010), and Reconstructing Resilient Communities after the Wenchuan Earthquake: Disaster Recovery in China (2023).

• Introduction. Disaster Studies in Japan Part 1: Lenses 1. Coping with the “Inexplicable”: Hōjōki and Premodern Japanese Perceptions of Disaster 2. Fighting the “Morbid Fear” of Fire in Tokyo, 1872–1945 3. Disaster Research and Practice: The Development of the Field since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (1995) 4. Japanese Cities, Disaster, and Urban Sociology 5. The Evolution of Disaster Education in Japan 6. Disability and Disaster 7. Aging and Disaster Resilience 8. Women and Children in Disasters 9. Disasters without Borders: The Coronavirus Pandemic, Global Climate Change, and the Ascendancy of Gradual Onset Disasters 10. Japan’s Disaster Culture and Local Communities 11. Disaster Medical System in Japan 12. Businesses and Disaster: Japanese Companies’ Responses to Vulnerability through Corporate Disaster Prevention and BCP 13. International Students and Disasters Part 2: Human Activities 14. Big Data-Driven Disaster Management and Resilience 15. It’s Who You Know: How Social Networks Help Cities Rebuild with Renewables after Disaster 16. Social Capital Differences in Disaster Resilience: A Comparison between China and Japan 17. Stronger Together: The Critical Role of Bridging and Linking Social Capital in Evacuation Outcomes 18. Community Preparedness and Emergency Response for Natural Hazard-Triggered Technological Accidents 19. Disaster Risk Management and Formal Non-Governmental Actors in Japan: Knowledge and Learning-Oriented Initiatives of Post-3.11 NGO/NPO Networks 20. Networks of Non-Profit Organizations in Japan’s Disaster Recovery 21. Emergency Response to 2020 Kumamoto Floods amid COVID-19 22. The Evolution of Japan’s ODA Disaster Response, with Special Reference to Indonesia and the Philippines 23. Japan’s Disaster Risk Reduction Diplomacy and the “Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction” Part 3: Disaster Experiences 24. Storytelling and the Arts as Tools in Disaster Risk Education: Tohoku University’s “Kataritsugi” and the Stories of 3.11 25. COVID-19 and SDGs: Civil Society Perspectives 26. Interfaith Chaplaincy Movement in Japan Precipitated by the Tsunami in 2011 27. Symbolic Recovery, Intellectuals, and External Supporters in Local Reconstruction 28. Risks Confronting Buddhist Temples in Responding to COVID-19 29. Women in Faith-Based Disaster Response to the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes 30. Negative Social Support During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences among Mothers of Infants and/or Young Children in Japan 31. Mobilized Mothers Triumph: Social Movement Protest to the Triple Disaster 32. Women and Resilience in Japan: The Role of Kirikiri’s Fujinkai Leaders in Disaster Management 33. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the Migrant Community in Kobe 34. Resilience in the Everyday: Older People in Disaster Relocation 35. Shuri Castle: Okinawa as a Site of Vulnerability and Resilience 36. Loss, Place, and Rituals: Community Commemoration in Iwate Prefecture after 3.11 37. The Importance of Remembering Public Transportation Accidents in Japan 38. Hiroshima’s Forgotten Voices: Resilience in Hibakusha Video Testimony and Memorialization 39. Compassionate Grounds: Contemporary Artists’ Responses to the Ongoing Recovery of Tōhoku 40. Popular Culture of Disaster: Developments Post-3.11 Appendix 1: List of Disasters 1945-2025 Appendix 2: Negative Social Support Experiences Study Conclusion