Volunteer Firefighters in Japan
Tomoyuki Kawano
Regional Disaster Management Office,Fire and Disaster Management Agency, Japan1. How Volunteer Firefighters Function

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Institutional Arrangement in Fire Service– Central Gov., Prefecture and Municipality
Mission: Firefighting, Ambulance Service and Rescue Activity
Central Government(Fire and Disaster Management Agency) Designing basic fire fighting measures and policies
 Providing technical advices, education and training Conducting researchPrefectures

 Running fire academy to provide
fire defense education and training

Municipalities Day to day firefighting operation as well as
ambulance service and rescue service inaccordance with situation and condition ofmunicipalities on their own initiative2

Japan’s Volunteer Fire Corps and Regional Disaster Prevention System
As of April 1, 2017
*As of April 1, 2018

Conventional Fire Services
About 164,000 professionals
Fire Organizations

Volunteer Fire Corps
About 844,000 firefighters*

Independently takemeasures against disasters
in their own regions

Voluntary Disaster Prevention
Organizations
About 43.89 million persons

Volunteer Fire Corps plays a role of cooperation between conventional fire service
and voluntary disaster prevention organizations, and constitutes a core presence
in regional disaster prevention.
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Position and Treatment
Municipalities
Mayor
Covering Cost
Professionals

Coordination(Regular Responders)

Position

Volunteers(Non-Regular Responders)Treatment Part-time local government official

 Compensation for accidental damages in theline of duty Competence and responsibility for engaged
in firefighting

 PPE and other equipment provided bymunicipalities

 Robust collaboration with professional
firefighters Allowance – monthly and attendance basis
 Reward at retirement
４Equipment
Fire Engine

Engine Cutter

Chain Saw

Firefighting
Equipment

Flood LightTransvers

Rescue Tools

HydraulicCutter

Rescue Boat5Advantageous Aspects

1. Close to Community
Have known their own communities and its
situations better than professional firefighters

2. Robust Mobilization
Have five times more members than professionals(Volunteers: 840k > Professionals: 160k)

3. Rapid Response
Can start firefighting/rescue activities even before
professionals attend the incident scene, becauseof undergoing high-level trainings
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Main Tasks in Disaster Response

Courtesy of Miyazaki
City Fire Department

Courtesy of Hiroshima City
Fire Services Bureau

Courtesy of Tokachi Fire Bureau

Fire Fighting

RescueFlood Fighting Close collaboration withprofessionals for effective
firefighting
 Patrolling on incident site
after putting fire undercontrol to check if the fireoccurs again

 Search and rescue, in
cooperation withprofessionals

 Preventing river floodfrom happening withflood fighting method
 Instruction/assistance forresidents evacuation

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Main Tasks in Normal Times

Courtesy of Miyazaki
Fire Department

Exercises Regularly doing
exercises• Hose handlingtechnique• Handling equipment

Courtesy of Miyazaki
Fire Department

Courtesy of Miyazaki
Fire Department

Lectures

Public Awareness Lectures to residentsregarding first aid
including AED

 Raising publicawareness for fire
prevention and disasterrisk reduction

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2. Case Studies

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Great East Japan Earthquake
Tsunami Instruction for resident evacuation, stopping at every houses in the community Closing water gates at shore immediately after tsunami warning issued
The disaster was too large for professionals to handle these missions – then covered by volunteers.
Firefighting

 Water recourses lacked due to the earthquake, which required long distance pumping from rivers todisaster affected communities Fire scale was so large and continued for many days
Only professionals were not enough to combat the disaster – volunteers’ support proved vital.
Rescue Rescued isolated people and guided to emergency shelters
Volunteers' detail knowledge on community helped make the rescue and the guidance efficient.

Courtesy of Tokyo Fire Department

firefighting by volunteers

Professionals and volunteers working together

Courtesy of Tokyo Fire Department

Evacuation guide by volunteers

10Nagano Quake in 2014
In Nov 2014, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake stroke northern part of Nagano prefecture, wheremore than 200 houses in communities collapsed.
Volunteer Firefighters Involvement

 A volunteer group, led by a former volunteer firecorps, has created an original map for emergency
operation where the location of people in need ofassistance for evacuation was plotted – quite
useful to rescue the people and guide toevacuation instantly.
 Safety confirmation process was completed justfor 90 mins.

Courtesy of Fire Department KITA-ALPS NAGANO

 Even with a magnitude - 6.7 earthquake in midnight winter, all of the residents in disaster hit
communities survived.

Proved the significance of volunteers’ activity

Courtesy of Nagano City Fire Department

11Northern Kyushu Flooding and Landslides
Northern Kyushu region was hit by a wall of water due to river floods and landslides causedby the unprecedented heavy rainfall.
Volunteer Firefighters Involvement

The disaster affected areas were too wide forprofessionals to carry out search and rescue.

“Robust Mobilization” – one of the volunteers
advantageous aspect, functioned well. Max 4,000
volunteers engaged in search and rescue in wideareas.

Other tasks the volunteers have taken were;・evacuation instruction and safety confirmation
・removal of drifted timbers and shoveling of mudand・emergency water supply and carriage of food toisolated areas.
Volunteers on searching (Asakura City)
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Itoigawa City Great Fire
 The fire occurred at a built-up area in Itoigawa City in 2016 and flying sparks in multiple locations weresimultaneously created, leading to the spread of fire. The incident happened as a small-sizedrestaurant chef forgot to turn off large stoves before leaving there.
 Strong southerly wind was another factor to hugely spread the fire.
SeaFirefighting

Necessary to combat fires spreading in about 40,000㎡. Volunteers secured
water resource by pumping water from river with portable pumpers, which
helped professionals keep on firefighting for many hours

Route 8Volunteer Firefighters proved their ability to back up the professionals
long-period firefighting.
RescueEvacuation Instruction
Volunteers firefighters, who were familiar with fire incident areas,
underpinned prompt instruction of evacuation.

Origin of fire

Itoigawa Station

Courtesy of Itoigawa-City

Courtesy of Itoigawa-City

Hokurku Bullet Train
Courtesy of Itoigawa-City Fire Department

133. Current Status

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Current Status on Volunteer Firefighters
1. Number（as of April 1st, 2018）
 Corps: 2,209 (organized in all of the municipalities)
 Sub-Corps: 22,314
 Member: 843,661 (decrease 6,670 year on year)

3. Employed People in Volunteer Fire Corps
（％）

80.0
60.0

64.4 68.2

69.8 70.5 71.9 72.2 72.4 72.9 73.2 73.5

54.5

40.0

42.8

2. History of Volunteer Firefighter Number
Volunteer Firefighters（unit: 10k）
250

20.0

Fire Departments / Municipalities

0.0

100%
98.3%

1,944,23320080%

26.5
1965

75

8595

2000

05

10131415

161718With change in structure of occupation, employedpeople are now major part of volunteer firefighting
groups – taking 73.5% of all

4. Women Volunteer Firefighters
150

60%

996,743（Women Volunteer Firefighters）

80.0

843,661

100(Ratio of Volunteer Firefighting Corps
with Women Members）

75.0
40%

70.0

19,043 19,577 20,109

20,785 21,684

24,94722,747 23,899

65.0
60.0
55.0
50

20%

50.0
45.0

52.5

54.7

57.1

59.4

61.6

64.3

66.9

69.1

25,96225,00071.2

00%1954 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 2000 05 10 13 14 15 16 17 18※20,000
15,00010,000
5,000

40.0

10.0%

30,00002010

1112131415

161718

Women Volunteer
Ratio of Volunteer Firefighter Group with Women Members

1955-90 has seen sharp drop of volunteers as the establishment offire departments progressed in the period. Since then, the trend
turned flat – around 844,000 as of April 2018.

Women volunteer firefighters are 25,962 - around 3.1%of all and increase 1,015 for the last year, showing anincrease trend.
154. Conclusion

16Conclusion
 What are the volunteer firefighter advantages?
1. Close to Community
2. Robust Mobilization
3. Rapid Response
The volunteer firefighters in Japan functions
well in disaster management, making most of
the three advantageous characters.
 Position and treatment of the volunteer firefighters
・Part-time local government official
・Their activities financed by municipalities
e.g. PPE & other equipment, allowance and compensation

These functional systems/environment energize
Japanese volunteer firefighters’ activities.

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