Author(s)

TAKEYASU SUZUKI

Abstract

Abnormal weather caused by global warming has brought about unprecedented torrential rain, causing heavy rain disasters in various parts of Japan. Since recent river flooding caused inundation damage over a wide area, area-wide evacuation, that is, evacuation to a safe place beyond municipalities’ boundaries is necessary to save lives. This paper first introduces the community disaster management planning system that was established in Japan in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Next, the necessity of wide-area evacuation that has become apparent due to the recent flooding of large-scale rivers and a few problems that have arisen in the government-led wide-area evacuation plan are introduced, because residents’ concrete evacuation behaviour was not sufficiently reflected. The author discusses efforts of a community in the Kofu basin, Yamanashi Prefecture which has been working to formulate a community disaster management plan for wide-area evacuation and city and prefectural efforts that support this district. The author also describes the risk communication that was undertaken to clarify the role of central ministries, local governments and community residents in the formulation of wide-area evacuation plans. Finally in wide-area evacuation drills, planned and conducted by the community in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the community disaster management plan is further reviewed. In this article, the author addresses how such a community-led wide-area evacuation plan is indispensable for administrations’ effective wide-area evacuation planning.

Keywords

risk communication, wide-area evacuation, community-led, community disaster management plan, evacuation drill, flood countermeasures