A Study towards Developing a Community Disaster Response System - Empowering Community Residents in Disaster

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25590144
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Social welfare and social work studies
• Research Institution: Meiji Gakuin University
• Principal Investigator: AKASHI Rumiko 明治学院大学, 社会学部, 教授 (00535396)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 災害 / 防災 / 災害への備え / 地域防災 / コミュニティ防災 / 災害エンパワーメント / 自助 / 共助

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigated community disaster response systems in the US and Japan. Interviews were conducted with the Office of Emergency Management and Community Emergency Response Teams in California, New York and Washington DC. In Minato-district of Japan, the participants in the community disaster response seminar by CERT　trainers and leaders from San Francisco and New York were studied, using a questionnaire, to investigate their disaster awareness. Suggestions for developing a community disaster response system in Japan are that: not only local government but also central government can play an important role in community disaster management; disaster training include developing people’s basic disaster response skills (such as first aid) in addition to their specific skills to respond to local disasters; and a pre-register system of disaster volunteers in accordance with their professional skills be developed.

Free Research Field

社会福祉