Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
11.2.3
Large-Scale Disasters and Disaster Education
In Japan, natural disasters are frequent. When large-scale disasters occurred, the
government immediately formed a committee of experts to operationalize efforts
aimed at strengthening disaster countermeasures in the schools. For example, the
Central Disaster Management Council, held in July 1995 after the Great Hanshin-
Awaji earthquake, established the Expert Survey Association for Promoting a
Citizens' Movement to Reduce Disaster Damage, and published the 'Basic Principles
for Promoting a Citizens' Movement to Reduce Disaster Damage' in April 1996. To
foster school safety, in June 1995 MEXT established the Survey Research
Collaborators' Conference on Strengthening the Disaster Management System of
Schools, and issued an interim report on “Strengthening the Disaster Management
System of Schools” in November that same year. A plan for school disaster preven-
tion and a response manual for teaching staff were published, while guidelines were
released on how to strengthen the school disaster management system in a follow-up
report in September the following year. Additionally, in July 2011 MEXT established
the Expert Conference on Disaster Education and Disaster Management in the Wake
of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which carried out an interim assessment in
September of that year. In July 2012, based on the 'Plan for the Promotion of School
Safety' the ministry released results of the 'Research Survey on the Responses of
Schools in the Great East Japan Earthquake'. A fi nal report was published on
ensuring instructional guidance time for disaster education, systematic allocation,
organized training for teaching staff, maintaining a preparedness, collaboration
with the local community, and a disaster prevention manual (Expert Conference on
Disaster Education and Disaster Management in the Wake of the Great East Japan
Earthquake
2012
).
Coming out of these expert conferences were a variety of suggested measures
for strengthening disaster education, administration, and organized activities in the
schools. In these meetings, disaster education meant the cultivation of students' abili-
ties to respond to disasters, and the aims stated in the “Strengthening the Disaster
Management System of Schools Follow-up Report”, released in September 1996.
Those aims were integrated into various documents, for example, the “Disaster
Prevention Learning Handbook” (February 2007) assembled by the Kuroshio
Education Summit (
2007
) including four prefectures (Chiba, Shizuoka, Wakayama,
and Kochi). This handbook states the goals of disaster education as follows: (1) students
can make precise judgments and act to ensure their own safety, in accord with their
development level; (2) to position disaster education as a subject that values life, and
is useful during times of disaster to ensure the safety of other people, groups, and the
local community; (3) using the local community as teaching material and holding
disaster prevention drills in collaboration with that community, to help students
understand the mechanisms by which disasters occur and their history, the local
community's natural environment, and its disaster management system.
To achieve these goals, the basic questions are how to learn about and respond to
disasters. In particular, in 2006, the Basic Law on Education was revised and a new
