2008

Gender and Disaster Risk
Reduction:
Perspective from JapanThe report describes gender perspective of disaster risk
reduction in Japan from field survey, policy analysis, and twocase studies of Hiroshima and Kobe.

Yukiko Takeuchi and Rajib Shaw
Kyoto University

November 2008

Gender and Disaster Risk Reduction:
Perspective from Japan

Yukiko Takeuchi & Rajib Shaw
International Environment and Disaster Management,
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies,
KYOTO UNIVERSITY

November, 2008

Table of Contents
1. Background ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Gender and Disaster .......................................................................................... 1
1.2 Organization of the Report ............................................................................... 6
2. Review of National Policy of Disaster Risk Reduction and Gender ............. 7
2.1 Generic Aspects of National Disaster Management Policy ....................... 7
2.1.1 General Disaster Situation in Japan ........................................................ 7
2.1.2 Legal System and Structure of Disaster Management in Japan......... 8
2.1.3 Disaster Management Planning in Japan ............................................. 10
2.2 Overview and timeline of gender inclusion in Disaster Management
Plan .............................................................................................................................11
2.3 Current Focus and Emphasis .......................................................................... 12
Figure 2.4 Female woman’s fire-fighter ............................................................... 14
2.4 Link to Other Sectors ....................................................................................... 14
2.4.1 Japan International Cooperation Agency in Disaster Relief ............ 14
2.4.2 NPO.............................................................................................................. 15
2.4.3 Declaration from Anamizu...................................................................... 18
3. Case study 1: Hiroshima (Water Related Disaster) .......................................... 19
3.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 19
3.2 Study Area and Damage ................................................................................. 20
3.3 Gender perspective .......................................................................................... 23
4. Case study II: Kobe (Earthquake) ........................................................................ 30
4.1 Background ........................................................................................................ 30
4.2 Gender Perspective .......................................................................................... 36
4.2.1 Major Gender Issues in Kobe ................................................................. 36
4.2.2 A 10 year evaluation of Reconstruction after Kobe Earthquake ...... 37
4.2.2. 1. Women’s Poverty.................................................................................. 37
4.2.2.2. Mass Dismissal of Part-timers ............................................................ 38
4.2.2.3. Health and the Prevention of Domestic/Sexual Violence ............. 39
4.2.2.4. Impact of Shelter Life on Women’s Health...................................... 39
4.2.2.5. Insufficient Support for Pregnant Women and Mothers with
Infants .................................................................................................................... 40
4.2.2.6. Disasters and Violent Actions against Women ............................... 41
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page i5. Conclusion and Way Forward .............................................................................. 43
5.1 Generic observations ....................................................................................... 43
5.1.1. Women’s Participation in Disaster Reduction and Post-Disaster
Reconstruction...................................................................................................... 43
5.1.2. Operation of Shelters immediately after the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake ............................................................................................................ 43
5.1.3 Participation of Women in Disaster Reduction and Post-disaster
Reconstruction Planning .................................................................................... 44
5.2 Policy Implication and its Implementation ................................................ 44
5.3 Risk Communication and Gender Inclusion .............................................. 47
5.4 Way Forward ..................................................................................................... 51
Appendix 1: Interview Survey in Hiroshima ........................................................ 53
Appendix 2: Disaster Management Section of Cabinet Office of Governmentof Japan ......................................................................................................................... 54
Appendix 3: Gender Equality Bureau of Cabinet Office of Government ofJapan .............................................................................................................................. 55
Appendix 4: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) .......................... 56
Appendix 5: NPO Women’s Net KOBE ................................................................. 57
Appendix 6: Community Activities in Nagata Elementary School, Kobe....... 58

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Commission) for
supporting this study.

Special thanks to the Philippines Women’s University

for their excellent coordination and support during the project period.

Wehighly acknowledge the advice and support of Etsuko Tsunozaki of ADRC
(Asian Disaster Reduction Center) from the beginning of the study period.
The report is based on the field survey, hearing survey, interviews and focus
group discussion with different groups.

We thankfully acknowledge the kindcooperation of:-

Yuzuru Tachii and Tatsuya Aizawa of Disaster Preparedness of Cabinet
OfficeAya Yamaguchi, Junko Minami and Masae Yamauchi of General Affairs
Division Gender Equality Bureau of Cabinet Office-Satoru Mimura, and Aya Okada of Disaster Reduction Section of JICA-

Harutoshi Nishii, Head of Hiroshima City Fire Department-

Reiko Masai, Head of Women’s Net Kobe-

Ko Ohta, having experience of Kobe earthquake

Contact Address:
Yukiko Takeuchi, D. Sc.
Lecturer
International Environment and Disaster Management Laboratory
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies KYOTO
UNIVERSITY
Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, JAPANTel/ Fax: 81-75-753-5634 (Direct)
Fax: 81-75-753-5708
E-mail: y.takeuchi@fw7.ecs.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Web: http://www.iedm.ges.kyoto-u.ac.jp/

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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“As pivotal managers of natural and environmental resources, and key frontline
implementers of development, women have the experience and knowledge to build theresilience of their communities to the intensifying natural hazards to come”.
UN ISDR Publication 2008

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page iv

1. Background
1.1 Gender and DisasterNatural disasters amount to a serious disruption in the functioning of acommunity or a society by natural phenomena occurring in the biosphere,causing widespread human, economic or environmental losses. The scale ofthese losses is typically such that often the affected community cannot copeusing its own resources. 1 The frequency of natural disasters has been risingmarkedly, and at our current state of knowledge there is every reason to thinkthat climate change will only exacerbate this trend (UNISDR 2007) 2.
Disasters pose a major challenge to development. Natural disasters take placethroughout the world: three of the ten deadliest disasters in 2006 occurred inEurope, two of which were heat waves striking wealthy Western countries:
Belgium and the Netherlands (UNISDR 2007). The loss of lives is equally tragic
in the developed and in the developing world, but the capacity of developing
countries to recover from disaster and to mitigate its economic and social
impacts is far more limited. The estimated $5 billion worth of damage caused inPakistan by the Kashmir earthquake of October 2005 roughly equalled the total
official development assistance received nationally in the preceding three years,
and was equivalent to total World Bank lending to the country over thepreceding decade. Bank lending financed the construction of 487 schools in
Mozambique over the span of 20 years – a single recent disaster, the 2000 floods,
damaged or destroyed around 500 primary schools and 7 secondary schools(IEG 2006) 3.
Despite the very clear need to incorporate a disaster perspective intodevelopment efforts in disaster hotspots, most development assistance still does
not account for this even where the likelihood that disasters will occur again ispredictable. Nevertheless, the Independent Evaluation Group found that the1

Definition adopted from the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (2004)

2

UNISDR: United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (2007) Trends of Natural Disaster Reduction.

3

Independent Evaluation Group Report on Bank’s Role on Disaster Related Activities, 2006

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 1

World Bank demonstrated considerable flexibility in natural disaster assistanceon the ground, including in cases where the active project frameworks had beensilent on the topic. The World Bank’s new operational policy on Rapid
Response to Crises and Emergencies (OP 8.00, March 2007 4 ) is perhaps
indicative of a larger shift in international awareness of the importance of
consciously mainstreaming a disaster perspective into development where thisis warranted.
Disasters are emergencies, or actualised hazards, whose scale is not matched bya society’s own resources to recover. Disaster risk is created by the interactionof natural hazard – a potentially damaging natural phenomenon – andvulnerability: that is, the conditions and processes that define the susceptibilityof a community to natural hazard. Natural risk mitigation can target either ofthese risk components. For instance, the likelihood of the occurrence of certain
types of natural hazards, such as floods, can be influenced by human activity,
such as the maintenance of natural drainage courses or the construction oflevees. Reducing vulnerability to natural hazards, in turn, is in many cases
easier to achieve than targeting hazards themselves, and in some cases it is the
only available option for disaster risk mitigation.
The efforts to mitigate the impact of natural disasters can be divided into three
distinct analytic categories:•

risk mitigation and preparedness in the pre-disaster phase,•disaster relief immediately after the event,•longer-term post-disaster recovery and reconstruction.

Disasters recur periodically in many regions of the world. While the exact
timing and extent of future disasters can rarely be predicted, the expectation of
their occurrence in the form of future risk can and should be incorporated intodevelopment efforts in disaster-prone areas. Reconstruction and recovery itself
can therefore be construed as risk mitigation in preparation for the next
expected disaster event. In addition, activities during any of these phases shape
the circumstances and the available policy options during the next. For these
4

World Bank Operational Policy on Rapid Response to Crises and Emergencies, 2007

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 2

reasons, the scope of this study will extend to cover risk mitigation alongside
our main focus of recovery and reconstruction, and its appendix addresses
gender concerns in the disaster relief phase.
Gender 5 is a central organizing principle in many of the disaster-pronesocieties. While the experiences of individual women and of individual men ina disaster environment are heterogeneous, social, economic and political factors
join biological differences (such as average physical strength) to shape therespective experiences and needs of women and of men as a group (see box 1).
Gender: The term “gender”, in contrast with biological sex, refers to“…culturally based expectations of the roles and behaviours of males andfemales. The term distinguishes the socially constructed from the biologicallydetermined aspects of being male and female” (World Bank 2002). Hence, manyof the differences in the needs and capacities of women, men and other gendergroups that are gender-related are ultimately contingent. To the extent thatpolitical institutions and policies – or their absence – contribute to shaping theexperiences and opportunities of men and women, gender issues themselves
become a valid policy concern.
Mainstreaming:

Mainstreaming

genderinto

disasterrecoveryandreconstruction (DRR) is the process of taking into account the needs, concerns
and capacities of women, men and other gender groups in disaster planningand in disaster response (United Nations Economic and Security Council,
E.1997.L.30.Para.4). Effective mainstreaming spans analysis, policy andoperational considerations, and institutional arrangements that extend tomonitoring disaster recovery practice. Because gender issues are cross-cutting,gender mainstreaming is a cross-cutting approach.
Box 1. Gender and Mainstreaming definition
Men as a group and women as a group often have different needs, priorities
and capacities in a disaster setting, and experience different levels of disaster
resilience. For instance, women died in considerably larger numbers in manydifferent cases from the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone through the 1993 Maharasthra
earthquake and the 1995 Kobe earthquake to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
5“Mainstreaming Gender into Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction, SF/CDD Handbook, World Bank Internal Document.

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 3(Asian Development Bank, United Nations and World Bank 2005) 6. Some of thereasons for this included higher rates of malnutrition among women which
made them physically weaker, lower rates of survival skills such as swimmingand tree climbing, and lower mobility that was partly a consequence ofrestrictive cultural norms.
The poor also often have little choice but to build on unsafe ground, and to
erect structures which do not meet the currently binding building codes. This
heightens the relative vulnerability of those who tend to spend more timeindoors and around the house. Traditional patterns of gender division of labour,
as well as the general overrepresentation of men among migrant labour, meanthat it is women and children who are therefore most exposed to disaster inthese conditions.
Gender concerns in disaster management are emphatically not limited to
women. Men as a group are also affected if a large proportion of the victims are
women, as many male survivors need to take on unfamiliar tasks such as
childcare and household chores, in addition to having to cope with the traumaof losing family members. Men can be more likely to suffer injuries, and they
typically lack access to much needed psychosocial counselling designed
specifically for their needs, including alcoholism treatment. Such considerations
are not typically accounted for in disaster preparedness, relief or recovery
policies, but they have a great impact on the lives of individuals andcommunities affected by disaster.
Finally, to the extent that some of the needs of men and women are similar, they
are not always taken into account equally in disaster response. One example isthe necessity of compensating for assets and revitalising livelihoods. Men’s
livelihoods are often more visible, while a larger proportion of women’s labour
typically takes place in the household and in other sectors of the informal
economy. Women’s assets such as jewellery and the tools of their labour are
also less likely to be covered in risk and recovery assessments. Women’s paid
and unpaid labour, however, is a significant contribution to local and national

6

Asian Development Bank, United Nations and World Bank Joint Assessment Report of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 4

economies. In El Salvador, a nationwide study found that women’s contribution
to the household was equal to or greater than men’s in 49% of urban homes,
and in 56.6% of rural households (ECLAC 2003) 7. It is therefore essential for thedevelopment of disaster affected communities and regions that women’s
livelihood assets and activities are directly accounted for in disastermanagement plans and policies.
In many ways, timing is a crucial factor in the success of mainstreaming gender.
The ability to take advantage of opportunities that present an unusual degree of
openness to changes in policy and in practice, of course, depends on a host of
preconditions: capable actors, supporting norms and adequate institutions.
Good timing is certainly not sufficient for successful reforms, but it is,nevertheless, indispensable.
Timing is generally favorable for policy change when the possibilities ofexisting arrangements are exhausted, when these arrangements consume too
many resources, or when the system suffers large external shocks. Pathdependence theory suggests that institutions are sticky: institutional change,
including changes in rules and policy frameworks, is generally bound by
previous outcomes and the historical path of development that any given
institution has followed. Accordingly, large and lasting changes in policy andinstitutional practice, signaling a significant break with previous frameworks
and practices, is likely only to take place as a reaction to a considerable external
stimulus.
The shock of a major disaster may provide exactly the kind of stimulus that
opens up the possibility of changing policy and practice towards gendersensitive disaster management. The impact of a disaster shock on natural
hazard management is not necessarily causal: disasters have been occurring formillennia without any change in attitudes towards affected women and affected
men. On this scale, disaster management itself, as well as concepts such as
human rights, is very recent developments. However, what this shows is notthat disaster shocks are irrelevant, but that the existing preconditions limit the7

ECLAC Methodology for damage and need assessment, 2003.

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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scope of achievable policy change at any one time. Where norms of gender
equity or psychological welfare are less well developed, the range of feasible
change is likely to centre on making progress on a few of the issues and on
strengthening gender-sensitive norms that could later support further change,rather than an immediate move to incorporating the full range of
gender-specific concerns into disaster management.

1.2 Organization of the Report

The content of the report is prepared through literature review, field visits,
interviews, focus group discussion, hearing survey and analysis. The report
has three main components:-

Review of national policy of disaster risk reduction of Japan with specificfocus on gender issues-

Case study of Hiroshima (for landslide and water related disasters)-

Case study of Kobe (for earthquake)

Based on these observations, concluding chapter is developed with specificrecommended policy actions.

There are supplemented by a set of appendices.

There has been hearing survey and field visits from seven groups:-

Disaster Management Section of Cabinet Office of Government of Japan, 24thof October 2008-

Gender Section of Cabinet Office of Government of Japan, 24th of October
2008-

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 24th of October 2008-

Hiroshima City Government, 1-3 October 2008-

Kobe City Government-

NPO Women Net Kobe, 27th of October, 2008-

The Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) of Kobe, Japan, 27th
October, 2008

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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2. Review of National Policy of Disaster Risk Reduction
and Gender
2.1 Generic Aspects of National Disaster Management Policy
2.1.1 General Disaster Situation in Japan 8

Japan is an island arc which belongs to the monsoon region, and is under the
influence of warm and moist air masses in summer and cool air masses in
winter. The moisture which is taken in the lower leaves of the air masses overthe sea is poured on the country by typhoon in summer, by snowfall in winter,by the ‘Bai-u Front’(in Japanese) in June and July, and by depressions andfronts in all seasons. The average amount of precipitation is 1,800 millimeters(70 inches) a year. This is two or three times the amount received in other areasof the some latitude. In the southern Pacific coast areas it amounts to 4,000
millimeters (160 inches). Owing to Japan’s slender shape and complicatedlandform, aerial differences climate are great.
Three-quarters of the land is mountains with generally high relief. Chains ofspinal mountains, some reaching 3,000 meters (1,000 feet) above sea level, run
through the center of the narrow and long country. Consequently, the rivers are
generally short with steep gradient. Erosion and devastation in the mountainareas are very rapid. Rivers are flooded soon after a heavy rain.
Japan is also situated in the circum-Pacific seismic zone, and suffers from severe
seismic and volcanic activities. Active volcanoes in Japan make up one-tenth of
the worlds total.

The greater part of the population of more than 100 million

lives in narrow plains with exceedingly high densities. As a result of rapid anddisordered urbanization, inappropriate land use prevails. Artificial changes ofnatural environments are rapid and large, accompanying the great increase ineconomic activity and exploitation (Nakano et al. 1974). Most Japanese cities areconcentrated on coastal plains.

While, the country’s 10% of land area is floodprone, about 50% of the population lives in flood plain, and almost 75% of the

8 T.Nakano, H.Kadomura, T.Mizutani, M.Okuda, T.Sekiguchi. Natural hazards: report from Japan, In White, G. and Burton, I.
(eds.), Natural Hazards: local, national, global, Oxford Univ .Press, 231-245, 1974.

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 7

property is concentrated in the flood plains (JWF, 2006) 9.
For the reason, in Japan there is much damage to lives and property due tonatural disaster every year. Up until the 1950’s, there were numerous large
typhoons or large-scale earthquakes which claimed the lives of more than 1,000
people. However, due to the progress of countermeasures such as promotion ofnational land conservation projects, improvement in weather forecasting
technologies, completion of disaster management system, the number of deaths
and missing due to natural disaster shows a declining tendency. But in 1995
more than 6,400 lives were lost in the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, andthere is concern that and enormous ocean trench earthquake will occur in the
Tokai region. So the menacing threat of natural disasters still lingers (Cabinet
Office Government of Japan. 2002) 10.
2.1.2 Legal System and Structure of Disaster Management in Japan
The immense damage caused by the Typhoon Ise-wan in 1959 was a turning
point for disaster management, giving rise to a movement to plan and prepare acomprehensive disaster management system, and in 1961, the Disaster
Countermeasures Basic Act was enacted. Therefore, the disaster management
system has been improved and strengthened following the occurrence of large
natural disaster and accidents.
The Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act is the basis for disaster management inJapan. Following is main contents of the act;
1. Definition of jurisdictions and responsibility for disaster management
2. Disaster management system
3. Disaster management plan
4. Disaster preparedness
5. Disaster emergency response
6. Disaster recovery
7. Financial measures
8. State of emergency

9Japan Water Forum (JWF). Flood Fighting in Japan, pp15, 2006.

10

Disaster General for Disaster management, Cabinet Office Government of Japan. Disaster Management in Japan, pp37, 2002.

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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For effective disaster management, the government, the local government anddesignated public corporation are expected to work out disaster management
plans and carry them out appropriately, according to the Disaster
Countermeasures Basic Act.
The Central Disaster Management Council was established for the purpose ofpromoting comprehensive countermeasures in which the Prime Minister takes
the chair and other Ministers of State are members. Following is duties ofCentral Disaster Management Council;
 Prepare and promote implementation of the Basic Disaster Management
plan and draft the Earthquake Disaster Management plan.
 Prepare and promote implementation of the urgent measures plan for
major disasters.
 Deliberate important matters pertinent to disaster management according
to requests from the Prime Minster and/ or Minister of State the disastermanagement.
 Offer opinions regarding important matters to disaster management to
the Prime Minister and Minister of State for Disaster Management.
Central Disaster Management Council’s member is Prime Minister, all cabinet
minister, chief of designated public corporations(Governor of the Bank of Japan,
President of Japan Red Cross Society, President of Japan Broadcasting
Corporation and President on Nippon Telegram and Telephone Corporation)
and People of experience or academic standing (4 person).

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 9Fig, 2.1 Disaster Management Organizations and Activities in Japan(Based by Cabinet Office Government of Japan. 2002)
2.1.3 Disaster Management Planning in JapanThe Basic Disaster Management Plan was revised entirely in 1995 based on theexperiences incurred at the time of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. The
plan clarifies the duties assigned to the Government, public corporations andthe local government in implementing measures. For easy reference tocountermeasures,

the

plan

also

describes

thesequenceofdisastercountermeasures such as preparation, emergency response, recovery andreconstruction according to the type of disaster.
Following is the system for Disaster Management planning; The Basic Disaster Management Plan; This plan sets forth the basic
activities for each type of disaster management plan, which is thefoundation of the nation’s disaster management measures. In the disciplineof disaster management, it is the master plan prepared by the Central
Disaster Management Council in accordance with Article 34 of the Disaster
Countermeasures Basic Act. This plan was established at 1963. This plan
was revised afterwards in 1971, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008.
 The Disaster Management Operation Plan; This is a plan made by therespective Designated Administrative Organizations and Designated Public
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 10

Corporations according to the Basic Disaster Management Plan.
 The Local Disaster Management Plan; This is a plan made by respective
prefectural and municipal disaster management councils according to local
circumstances and the Basic Disaster Management Plan.

2.2 Overview and timeline of gender inclusion in Disaster
Management Plan
Gender item was included to the Basic Disaster Management Plan at 2005 and2008. Following is new or revised part of the plan (Bold and Italic);
 Revised at 2005

Vol.2/ Chapter 1: Preparedness/ Section 3: Promotion of preparedness
activity by nation/ 2: Spread knowledge of disaster management andtraining
Before: When they spread knowledge of disaster management andtraining, they consider senior citizen, handicap people, foreigner, childand etc. And they try to get support them system in community.
After: When they spread knowledge of disaster management andtraining, they consider senior citizen, handicap people, foreigner, child,pregnant woman and etc. And they try to get them support system incommunity. What’s more, they consider a difference of the needs of the
man and woman and both viewpoints at the time of the disaster.



Vol.2/

Chapter2:

Disasteremergency

response/

Section5:

Management of evacuation shelter/ 2: Evacuation shelter
Before: The local government pays attention to the living environment of
the evacuation shelter and tries to keep a good condition and privacy.
After: The local government pays attention to the living environment of
the evacuation shelter and tries to keep a good condition, privacy andconsider a difference of the needs of the man and woman and both
viewpoints.
 Revised at 2008

Vol.1 (General)/ Chapter 3: Change and receive of General society fordisaster management
Before: Nothing
After: For disaster management to consider a difference of the needs ofthe man and woman and both viewpoints, need to increase theGender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 11

appointment rate of the woman to the important post at generalsociety. As the result, increase the woman’s decision maker.
Revised at 2005 was added item about emergency term in disaster cycle. Andrevised at 2008 was added item about usual term. A background of the revision
is research of Chuetsu Earthquakes at 2004 in Niigata prefecture by woman’s
sector of Cabinet Office Government of Japan. 2004 happened many disaster inJapan. Evacuation shelter was established by local government each disaster.
Residents’ people and government learned some woman’s issue by the Great
Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. But those issues did not reflection to Disaster
Management Plan still 2004. For correct woman’s issue, Woman’s sector of
Cabinet Office Government of Japan dispatched stuff to evacuation shelter in
Chuetsu Earthquake at 2004. It is a first experience that those research by
government of Japan. Woman’s sector of Cabinet Office Government of Japan
cleared following issue by the research; Lot of men gone to work. Evacuation shelter’s stakeholder at daytime iswoman, child and high age person.
 Many volunteer helped recovery. But, the majority of the volunteer was aman. Volunteer’s work was two types. One is a help of the dismantling
construction of the house. Another one is help of management ofevacuation shelter. The woman was difficult to say some request to a malevolunteer. As the result, the needs of the woman were difficult to beunderstood by a male volunteer.
 In relief supplies, there were few articles for women (ex, Sanitary Napkin).

2.3 Current Focus and Emphasis
The reason why a plan was not changed so far is because there is low
participation of the woman to the Disaster Management Council. The rate of thewoman member in the disaster management council of prefectural government
level is an average of 3.1% (Data of March 2008). Tokushima prefecture is mosthigh ratio (16.0%: Man is 42 persons, Woman is 8 persons). 11 prefectures is 0%.
Regarding Central Disaster Management Council, Now, gender balance ofmember of this Council is 3 persons per 26 persons. The appointment rate of thewoman to the important post is low in general society of Japan. Therefore, it isdifficult for to be chosen as a member of like Central Disaster Management
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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Council. Important is to increase woman decision maker of general society.
On the other hand, recently woman’s fire-fighter is increasing. In 1989,
woman’s fire- fighter was 1,605 people. But, in 2007 are 15,502 people (Disaster
white paper, 2008) 11 . Fire-fighter’ role is important for community disastermanagement. Them work is instruction of the refuge, first action, rescue, firstaid, leader of disaster management. Especially, it is thought that the increase of
the woman’s fire-fighter acts on the early refuge and medical treatment for
woman (Figure 2.3 and 2.4)

Fig. 2.2 Participation rate of the woman to the Disaster Management Council ofprefectural government level (Sauced by Woman’s sector of Cabinet Office Government of Japan 2008)

Fig2. 3 Year variation of number of woman’s fire-fighter(Sauced by Disaster white paper 2008)
11

Cabinet Office Government of Japan. Disaster white paper, pp440, 2008.

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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Figure 2.4 Female woman’s fire-fighter

2.4 Link to Other Sectors
2.4.1 Japan International Cooperation Agency in Disaster Relief
Japan has suffered many natural disasters, and has developed many innovative
disaster countermeasures as a result of its vast experiences. Today, the country
is working hard in the promotion of international cooperation in the field of
disaster management.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is having many developing
program and disaster management program. JICA’s concept is same it ofcentral Japan. An evaluation of JICA’s gender policy was conducted by Tanaka(2004) 12.

The evaluation studies drew similar lessons learned on the impact ofgender mainstreaming strategies and their constraints as that of the World Bank
Tanaka Yumiko (2004): Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Policy Evaluation in Official Development Assistance, The
Japanese Journal of Evaluation Studies Vol. 4, No. 2, 1-12.

12

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 14

or Asian Development Bank. The application of the above evaluation studies
gives future directions and suggestions for the evaluation of Japanese ODA
policies, programs and projects from a comprehensive gender mainstreaming
perspective. The gender evaluation methods to be applied cannot be only
technical per se but more of a political process to make the gender equality as
an explicit objective of ODA. Through such direction, its gender as well as
overall impacts will be measurable, thus possibly indicates the increase of theoverall impact and efficiency of the ODA.
2.4.2 NPO
Non-profit organization (NPO)’s activity has very important role forcommunity disaster management. In Japan, some NPO of disaster management
was established after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (1995). Every time,
general social issue was appeared by disaster. Therefore, disaster management
is not only focusing to disaster, but need to focus to general social issue (ex,child care, pregnant, old man care).
Woman’s net Kobe was established in 1992 at Kobe city. They established aims
are to support to woman and child. They managed shelter for escape by
Domestic Violence. In 1995, they had serious damage by the Great
Hanshin-Awaji earthquake. After the disaster, Women’s net Kobe received
many phone calls from residents’ woman. They told about need to help of childcare, pregnant woman’s care, rape, domestic violence and etc. Women’s net
Kobe is supporting to them still now. Women’s net Kobe made proposal froman earthquake in 2005 ten years later. Following is proposal contents:
1. Human rights respect is basic for disaster prevention, and it is necessary
to put the viewpoint of the woman.
2. Disaster management plan should include prevention system fromdomestic violence and rape.
3. Women participate in the administration of the evacuation shelter.
4. Support the woman who had infants
5. Support it so that a woman does not lose a job by disaster
6. Perform the support that accepted the needs of the woman
Now, Women’s net Kobe manages the web page of disaster and woman (Fig 4).
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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Women’s net Kobe is supplying 14 categories information regarding of disasterand woman. Following is categories:

1.

Old woman lives by herself

2.

Fatherless family

3.

Evacuation shelter

4.

Family

5.

Work

6.

Health7.

woman who had infants/

8.

Domestic to woman

pregnant
9.

Domestic to Child

10.

PTSD

11.

Minority

12.

Media

13.

Volunteer

14.

OthersGender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 16

Fig, 2.5 Web page of Disaster & Woman Information Network in Japan(http://homepage2.nifty.com/bousai/)

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 17

2.4.3 Declaration from Anamizu
The Noto Hanto Earthquake in 2007(M6.9) happened at 25th March 2007 in
Ishikawa prefecture and Toyama Prefecture. Anamizu Town is located in
Ishikawa prefecture. 22th March 2008, Anamizu Town held a meeting. Meeting
title was “Disaster management for woman”. In this meeting, people report anddiscussed about disaster management plan should include necessary to put the
viewpoint of the woman. In the meeting, a proposal of woman and disaster was
adopted. Following is abstract of declaration from Anamizu;
1. Woman participates in evacuation shelter’s administration and considers
the needs such as women
2. Woman is main person in community activity and home. The support of
the woman becomes the support of the life rebuilding and recovery.
Therefore, make the environment at office and home where a woman iseasy to work from usual/ normal time
3. Woman participates in a process to make social structure. We aim at themaking of society which respected various senses of values and local
culture.
For good Community disaster management, local government’s activity andrecognition is most important. The Cabinet Office Government of Japanevaluates activity of Anamizu Town.

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3. Case study 1: Hiroshima (Water Related Disaster)
3.1 Background
Many sediment disasters happened in every year by Typhoon, heavy rainfall
and heavy rainfall caused by depression. Sediment disaster’s characteristic isdifferent activity of each valley. Therefore, it is not possibly perfect defense bygovernment prevention. For that, the people have to prepare by themselves;
check risk area, get some information, understand environment condition, etc.
People were informed about government activities and residents action after
the Nagasaki Disaster in 1982. The government made hazard map to help
understand disaster information. After Hiroshima Disaster (1999) and Tokai
heavy rainfall disaster (2000), government is looking for intense resident
activities to protect loss of lives. For those reasons, people have to understanddisaster and how to prevent that.
Disaster prevention’s key stakeholder is residents and government. Main
countermeasure is hard type by engineering activities and soft type by
evacuation and education. Soft type countermeasure is important for residents.
For early evacuation and safety life, people have to do something forprevention. 1st step is getting some information about hazard and vulnerability
from governments. Second is to understand that information. Third is toprepare action plan by them, and the final is to do some action.
Risk information is of three types. One is for usual time information, second is
emergency time information, and third is recovery information. But, Sedimentdisaster’s one characteristic is different activity of each valley. People have to
get some information by themselves and decide some action by themselves. To
make decisive actions, people have to learn some information and make action
plan.
However, some people could not get some information in usual time and if they
catch some information, they did not understand information means. As theresult, people did not evacuate in emergency time. It is a crucial problem aboutsoft type countermeasure of disaster prevention.

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Fig. 3.1 Disaster cycle and prevention action of Rainfall Disaster3.2 Study Area and Damage
Hiroshima city is large city, but like other coastal cities in Japan, the city also
lacks enough flat area. From 1970s, there has been a steady population growthtill mid 1990s, and people from different places gathered in the city.

As theresult, the city was spread over to mountain area. Therefore, Hiroshima city has
the highest sediment disaster risk area in Japan. Old resident’s knew which partand when the disaster may happen through the experiences and legacy. But,
new residents did not know that information. In the new resident’s area,
people’s average living years is 15 years. Old resident’s people’s average is 60
years (Takeuchi, 2004) 13. The other issue is the geology of the areas, which is fullof granite, vulnerable to erosion and one of the main causes for the sedimentdisaster.
On 29th June 1999, heavy rain fall (over 150mm/3 hours) happened in
Hiroshima city due to depression. Before this rain fall, similar heavy rain falloccurred in the same region two times (23-24th June and 26-27th June).
13

Several

Yukiko Takeuchi, 2004, Hazard map: Respondents’ perception and requests in the case of Hiroshima, Japan, JSNDS 23-3,
349-361.

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debris flows occurred in the region due to heavy rainfall. This disaster damage
was as follow: debris flow occurred in 139 sites, collapse was 186, death toll was
31 persons, the missing people was 1 person and house damage was 154(Fujiwara, 2000) 14.

After the disaster, Hiroshima prefecture and Hiroshimacity performed many various soft and hard countermeasures.

Fig. 3.2 Study area

Figure 3.3 Mt. Aratani and Study area’s situation (Photo by Kotake)
14

Kenzo Fujiwara, 2000, Analysis of sediment disaster at Hiroshima city on June 1999, Hiroshima University of economics, Vol.22,
No.4, 3-37.

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Figure 3.4 Situation of sediment disaster at Hiroshima, 1999(Photo by Ootani)

Figure 3.5 Hazard map by Hiroshima city (2000)

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3.3 Gender perspective
In Hiroshima city, 32 people died in 1999 disaster, 16 male and 16 female. But,
old man and child’s victim was 71.8%. This number plus woman’s victim was
84.3%. The place of casualty was different for man and woman. Place of Man’s
death was outside and on the way house to working place. Woman, old person
and babies victim place was inside house.
One example, 29 years old woman died inside house. This place is land slide
high risk area. In 1970’s this area was paddy field. Especially, 29 years old
woman’s house place was pond to supply water to paddy field before. After
1970’s this area changed its land use to residential area, and developed newtransport system in 1990’s. This area grew to large residential area. In the end of
1990’s, pond was reclaimed for residential area. 10 houses were buildup on thisreclaimed area. Also, it is located at the entrance of the valley, and prone todebris flow.

Many new people live in this area from outside.

The family of 29 years old woman’s started living in this area 1year before 1999
disaster. Her family member was husband and two children (1 years old and3years old). In disaster day, husband went to work, 29 years old woman stayedwith children in house. This family just started living in this area; and they did
not have contact in this community. On the day of the disaster, official
announcement inform to residents through TV, radio and community network
at 10 o’clock (Figure 3.6). But, this family did not have community network.
Around 12 o’clock, the same community member chatted some prelude
information like:-

Changed of River water color (clear to brown),-

Rumble of the ground from mountain,-

Smell of burnt and etc.

For the 29 years old woman, it was the first experience to live near mountainarea. She did not understand that information was prelude debris flow. Manydebris flows occurred at 13-15 o’clock. In this area’s community have Local
Voluntary Disaster Management Organizations. Every year, community held
evacuation training program. However, the training participants are male inmany cases. Husband got some risk information and local information, but did
not share other family member and go out from community at daytime. She did
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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not know about the evacuation place in this community. She was staying house.
When debris flow happened, she stayed in the first floor. Her two children
stayed in the second floor. One debris flow attacked her house (Figure 3.7). Her
house was flowed about 30m (Figure 3.8). She was included debris flow. But,
her family did not have community network. Other community persons did notknow who lived in this house. Only the husband (who was outside for work)
knew this information. He did not understand this disaster situation. Children
were rescued from second floor. But, the 29 years old woman was rescued fromthe debris after 6 hours, but she was already dead. After the disaster, this placeestablished large SABO dam (Figure 3.9 and 3.10) and build memorial house(Figure 3.11).
Lesson from this disaster is woman (not only woman, but also in house worker)
need to learn living place’s disaster/risk information. After the disaster,
Hiroshima city government focused to need community disaster management.
But not include Gender (House worker) issue.
At 2005, The Basic Disaster Management Plan (National level) included gender
item. But, the Local Disaster Management Plan need time and trigger to change.
In Hiroshima city’s The Local Disaster Management Plan changed at 2008. Most
strong trigger was NPO’s activity. In 2007, Japan woman’s meeting held in
Hiroshima. This meeting’s organizer was Women’s net KOBE. Ms. Reiko Masai
of Women’s net KOBE had a presented of Disaster and Gender in this meeting.
She appealed Gender issue in disaster time. It was very strong trigger for
Hiroshima city.
The Local Disaster Management Plan of Hiroshima city include following
things; Pays attention to the living environment of the evacuation shelter and tries
to keep a good condition, privacy and consider a difference of the needs ofthe man and woman and both viewpoints.
 Regarding the manual of evacuation shelter management (Figure 3.12), fordisaster management to consider a difference of the needs of the man andwoman and both viewpoints, need to increase the appointment rate of thewoman.
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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Evacuation training was held based by the manual of evacuation shelter
management in September 2008 (Figure 3.13).

Figure 3.6 Situation of rainfall and disaster at 29th June 1999 (Takeuchi, 2005)

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Figure 3.7 and 3.8 Situation of disaster at 29th June 1999
(Photo by Asia Air Survey Co., Ltd.)

Figure 3.9 and 3.10 Situation of devastated area at 2008

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Figure 3.11 Memorial house

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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Figure 3.12 The manual of evacuation shelter management in community

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Figure 3.13 Satiation of Evacuation training in Hiroshima on September 2008

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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4. Case study II: Kobe (Earthquake)
4.1 BackgroundAn earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale and a depth of
16km, hit the city of Kobe and surrounding areas in the Hyogo Prefecture on 17

January 1995 at 5:46 in the morning (Figure 4.1). The earthquake is named as theGreat Hanshin Awaji Earthquake, and is popularly known as Kobe Earthquake.
The total number of casualties rose above 6,400, with numerous injuries andvictims of other collateral damages. Buildings and infrastructure were severely
damaged, and more than 200,000 people had to find temporary shelter indifferent parts of the city. Within the Kobe city administrative area, 70,000
buildings collapsed completely, with 55,000 seriously damaged. Public facilities
like offices, schools and hospitals were also damaged extensively, which
paralyzed city services for several days. Utility services were also interrupted:
electricity service was out throughout the entire metropolitan area, 25 per centof telephone services did not work, water and gas services were disrupted
throughout the town. At several locations, severe fires broke out, and 7,000
buildings were completely consumed, resulting more than 800,000m2 of burnt
areas. The direct financial loss was estimated at 7 trillion yen within Kobe city.
Secondary and tertiary losses in the city and other parts of the province weremuch higher 15.
Immediately after the earthquake, most affected people were helped or rescued
by friends, families and neighbors. A case study in the Nishi Suma area by theauthors pointed out that 60 per cent of residents were evacuated by their own
efforts, and approximately 20 per cent were rescued by neighbors. These data
indicate the importance of communities and neighbors in the immediate rescue
operation. The main reasons local people are so effective in rescue activities, asreported from the interviews are: information and knowledge of thecommunity;

leadershipwithininformalandformalcommunity-basedorganizations; availability of small tools for rescue operation such as saws andcrowbars. Wegner (1978) 16 discussed the importance of the community
15 Shaw R. and Goda K. (2004): From disaster to sustainable community planning and development: the Kobe Experiences, In
Disaster, 28 (1), 16-40.
16Wegner, D.E. (1978) Community Response to Disaster: Functional and Structural Alternations. In E.L. Quarantelli (ed.)

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response to disaster. Similar observations were also made after the Marmara
earthquake of 1999 in Turkey and the Gujarat earthquake of 2001 in India (Jalali,
2002; Shaw, 2003) 17.
After the rescue operation, the relief-and-rehabilitation phase began. In this,hundreds of volunteers gathered from different parts of Japan. Different
voluntary groups had coordination centers focused on different parts ofaffected areas. Needless to say, the prefecture, city and local governments had
their coordination centers as well. In some places, there was cooperation with
the NGO networks, in some places they acted independently. Figure 1 shows
the gradual change in a volunteer’s role in post- disaster scenario. It is observedthat while the role of outside volunteers gradually decreased in the temporary
shelters, the local volunteer activities continued into the permanent housing
phase. Changes were also noted in the nature of the volunteers. While
non-technical activities continued until the move to permanent housing,technical and networking work emerged at later stages of the reconstruction
process.

Nishi

Suma Kobe City

Awaji Island

Figure 4.1 Map showing the locations of temporary shelters in Kobe andDisasters: Theory and Research. Sage, Thousand Oaks.
17 Jalali, R. (2002) Civil Society and the State: Turkey After the Earthquake. Disasters 26(2): 120–39.
Shaw, R. (2003) The Role of Non-governmental Organizations in Earthquake Disaster Management: An Asian
Perspective. Regional Development Dialogue 24(1): 117–29.

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 31adjoining cities of Hyogo prefecture in JapanThe effectiveness of the coordinated NGO network has been observed in othercountries like Turkey, where a rescue NGO called AKUT was turned into thecoordination centre for relief distribution by the government. The same pattern
was observed after the Gujarat earthquake of 2001 in India, where an NGO
network called Abhiyan played a significant role in information dissemination
among the government, NGOs and international organizations (Shaw, 2003).

Figure 4.2 Changing roles of voluntary organizations as evidenced from theKobe Earthquake (Source: Shaw and Goda 2004)
The relief phase was followed by the reconstruction phase, in whichgovernment took the leadership (Figure 4.2). Roles of voluntary organizations
became minimized in certain areas, which was attributed to: lack of sustained
resources; lack of motivation to continue the efforts; changes in theorganizational mandates (some organizations focused on rescue and reliefonly); and lack of technical skills to contribute to the reconstruction process.
Among different activities, the creation of temporary shelters, identifying
special zoning areas, restoring lifelines and infrastructures were the priority
issues. From the government perspective, the reconstruction phase lasted forthree to five years, until the housing and infrastructures were fullyreconstructed.

However,

accordingtothepeople’s

perspective,thereconstruction phase is still continuing (PRP, 1998) 18.

18 KAP (2001) The Kobe Action Plan (in Japanese: Shimin Sakai o Tsukuru). International Forum of Disaster Management of
Citizens and NGO, Kobe.

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Figure 4.3 Damages of Kobe earthquake (RC buildings)

Figure 4.4 Damages of Kobe earthquake (Old wooden buildings)

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Figure 4.5 Damages of Kobe earthquake (Lifelines)

Figure 4.6 Damages of Kobe earthquake (highways)

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Figure 4.7 Community activities by women volunteers

Figure 4.8 Community activities by women volunteers(left: community bonding, right, activities)

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4.2 Gender Perspective
4.2.1 Major Gender Issues in Kobe
“There is no social class in Japan?” That’s not true! 19
Anyone can go to universities depending on how hard he or she works. Anyone
can climb the social ladder and rise to the top. There are 100 million people inthe middle class in Japan. After the disaster, we came to realize that they were
all lies. The earthquake shook all of us equally but it left us in different
situations. Older and wooden houses were destroyed. More elderly womendied in the quake than anyone else.
People who worked in large companies were the first to recover from thedisaster. Land-owners were able to reconstruct their lives quickly. The rest of us
without any assets are still struggling to put our lives back together. Full-time
employees and regular workers received more support than those without
decent employment status. People with savings were relieved. In the
post-quake devastation, age, gender and dependency on a husband often
determined victims’ destiny.
The most obvious gender discrepancy in Japan is the difference between men’s
and women’s paychecks. This has not improved for more than several decades.
Women’s salaries are less than half of that of men’s. Women’s wages could notafford to build a concrete house. Once she leaves her job for marriage orchild-raring, she can only find a part-time job when she next decides to work. If
she is divorced and has no children, she can’t even qualify for government
subsidized housing. This is why so many senior women live alone in old houses
and apartments.
And this is why they became the most tormented victims of the earthquake. A
woman either works for low pay all her life or works for free at home only tohave nobody taking care of her near the end of her life. Even if she is lucky
enough to survive the disaster, it is not easy for her to rebuild her life. In short,the earthquake made people realize that the worst form of discrimination in
Japan’s social system lies in the difference between “a class of men” and “a class

19

Women’s Net Kobe (http://homepage2.nifty.com/bousai/pdf/Introduction.pdf )Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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of women.” Female part-time workers were the first to be laid off whenbusinesses were affected by the quake.
Devastated by the tremor, companies cut female part-timer soon after thecatastrophe. Since big businesses sent relief goods and provided their workers
housing, people began saying, “Big businesses are best after all.” There werepeople who moved to Osaka because their children had to study for college
entrance exams. The government forced families to take in their elderly parents
since many senior citizens were left out on the streets. A lack of social services
was compensated by “family love.” Major gender related issues are
summarized in Table 4.1.
4.2.2 A 10 year evaluation of Reconstruction after Kobe Earthquake 20
4.2.2. 1. Women’s Poverty
Few Japanese know the fact that 1,000 more women were killed in the Great
Hanshin Earthquake. As of May 8, 1995, the death toll of women (3,294) was
higher than that of men (2,199). Women in their 70s were the highest, followed
by women in their 60s, women in their 80s, and 50s, in this order. Eighty
percent of those killed were either crushed to death or suffocated in the collapseof their houses. Moreover, many victims who were trapped under collapsed
houses were burned to death. These people would have been safe if only theirhouses had been more resistant to seismic forces. Since most collapsed houses
comprised aged housing in the inner city, damage from the earthquake wasdeeply related to the problem of poverty.
This fact eventually spotlighted socially vulnerable people, including theelderly, challenged, foreign workers and women. The average wage of womenwas (and still is) about half what it is for men. In addition to impoverishing
women, the low wage made many women, particularly elderly women,
extremely vulnerable to the disaster. Specifically, many such poor women lived
in old wooden apartments with only a shared toilet. According to a report from
the Ministry of Welfare at that time in 1995, the average income of fatherlessfamilies was only 30% of the national average, while that of motherless families
was 70% of the national average. Even in non-disaster situations, fatherless
20

Epilogue: 10 years after the Great Hanshin Earthquake ～By Reiko Masai, Women’s Net Kobe

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families are extremely unstable and vulnerable, economically, socially andpsychologically. In addition to elderly women, many mothers and children offatherless families also became victims of the disaster since they also lived inaged, fragile apartments or houses. This is partly because many such mothers
were unable to pay the high rent. It was also because many real estate brokers
refused renting decent apartments to fatherless families. I learned that after thedisaster some such mothers were obliged to remarry just so they could sustain
their livelihood. Of the various post-disaster reconstruction programs, therefore,priority should be placed on helping mothers of fatherless families find houses
and jobs, to replace the ones lost due to the disaster.
Three and half years after the earthquake, the Japanese government beganproviding victims with subsidies to help them regain economic independence.
Since these subsidies were provided for victimized households, or more
precisely given to the head of such households, who were generally men rather
than women, the majority of women victims who married (remarried) were noteligible. Demanding a remedy for the subsidy system, which was, allegedly,
based on gender discrimination, some women filed a lawsuit and won the case.
In Japan, many subsidy systems consider households rather than individuals as
the benefit recipients. This in turn has had a negative impact on women in thefield of disaster-relief service.
4.2.2.2. Mass Dismissal of Part-timers
Immediately after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, roughly 100,000 workers,
many of whom were female part-timers, were dismissed in the affected areas.
These dismissed workers included many mothers of fatherless families; women
who had to support their elderly parents and pregnant women. Many
dismissed part-timers were not covered by employment insurance, which was a
violation of relevant laws. This situation was not revealed until the massdismissals after the earthquake.
According to the Kobe Workers Union, which provided labor-related
consultation services, the number of cases it handled, reached over 1,700 in thesix months after the disaster (until June 1995). Amid the ongoing prolonged
recession, enterprises dismissed many employees with the excuse that theGender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 38

company’s performance declined due to the disaster. Some enterprises fired
full-time employees and replaced them with part-timers. Immediately after theearthquake, Hyogo Prefecture Women and Youth Office; Hyogo Prefecture
Women’s Center and the Labor Standards Bureau of the Ministry of
Welfare opened consultation counters for workers in the affected area. In thehalf month after opening, more than 1,000 cases of workers’ complaints,
according to the Sankei Shimbun of February 9, 1995 were handled at thesecounters. Among fired women workers were mothers with young children,
who were unable to go to work partly because of the closure of childcare
centers.
This was also partly because they were unable to leave small children at home
for fear of another accident. As a result, many mothers were fired. To sustain
women’s economic stability even in the event of disasters, it is therefore
essential to establish a legal system that bans dismissal in the event of disaster.
A system which allows victimized workers to take disaster leave is also
necessary. Moreover, the Japanese government should promptly take initiatives
to redress the wage gap between men and women- a gap which is being
exceptionally wide for advanced countries. At the same time, the government
should also establish a financial support system to reinforce the seismic
resistance of aged housing.
4.2.2.3. Health and the Prevention of Domestic/Sexual Violence
A 1990 report reviewed the impact of the Loma Prieta Earthquake in California
on Women. This report entitled “Influence of the Earthquake on Violenceagainst Women” concluded that violence against women can worsen after any
large disaster. It also concluded that any relief and restoration programs should
include measures to prevent and control violent acts against women andchildren. Regrettably, Japanese organizations did not have a copy of this reportby the time of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.
4.2.2.4. Impact of Shelter Life on Women’s Health
According to the results of a survey conducted in December 1995 by the
Earthquake Victims’ Association 11 months after the Great Hanshin Earthquake,
more women than men experienced worsened health problems. While staying
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in shelters, where no privacy was secured, women victims had to do most of thehousehold chores and take care of their children and sick/elderly family
members. In the post-disaster situation, greater burdens were imposed on
women than on men, due to persistent stereotypes about gender roles.
There were many women complain about the absence of privacy at shelters. In
one meeting, one victim said: “Whenever I came back to the shelter at night, I
felt anger at seeing so many male strangers in the same room with me.” At thatshelter, both men and women had to use the same toilet. There was nowhere tochange clothing, free from men’s eyes. Depriving women of the right to privacy
is an infringement of human rights. Long-term stays in surroundings without
any privacy were extremely stressful, particularly, for women.
Moreover, many women experienced great anxiety and fear. Mothers wereforced to soothe their crying babies in the cold outdoors to prevent their crying
children from disturbing other victims. As there were no nursing rooms,
mothers also breastfed their babies outdoors. Moreover, many mothers decided
not to live in shelters because of such a harsh environment. Since many women
were suffering from menstrual disorders, cystitis and vaginitis, there needs tohave clinics for women, preferably with midwives.
If this was impossible, at least, a woman leader should have been appointed ineach shelter. It is felt that in post-disaster situations women should participate
in the operation of shelters and layout of living spaces within shelters. In
preparing relief plans for disaster victims, gender-sensitive viewpoints should
be incorporated in both shelter operation and designs as well the stockpiling ofrelief materials.
4.2.2.5. Insufficient Support for Pregnant Women and Mothers with Infants
Because of the shattered transport infrastructure, many companies
accommodated their workers in nearby hotels, while their wives had to remainin the affected areas. As a result, many wives were left alone, some with theirinfants and others with their elderly parents, while their husbands moved tohotels near their workplaces. Reportedly, due to their fear of aftershocks thatfrequently hit the affected area, many panicked women abused their children.
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Pregnant women and women immediately after delivery who continued stay intheir own houses were particularly vulnerable. Without easy access to
professional help, daily necessities and information, many women developed
fatigue, anxiety and a sense of loneliness, particularly, when their husbands
were either far away or not cooperative. It is truly deplorable that women who
absolutely needed care were regarded and treated as care providers instead ofcare recipients.
4.2.2.6. Disasters and Violent Actions against Women
Women’s Net Kobe established a women’s hotline immediately after theearthquake. Of the consultations we offered to women victims, 60% concerned
domestic violence against women.

One woman caller stated “My housecollapsed completely, yet we have to continue paying the housing loan for ten
more years. My husband beat me even in the presence of our three-year-old
daughter.” Another woman said, “I am eight months pregnant. Yet, myhusband beats me, shouting that he doesn’t want any more children.”
For several months after the earthquake, Kobe’s streets had no electricity. On
dark streets with so many empty, collapsed buildings, many women wereraped. In July 1995, Women Net held an assembly with the slogan “We will
never forgive sexual violence.” To this assembly, several women lawyers andpublic nurses who served at many shelters were invited. Many women victims
were forced to stay silent because they had no other option but to remain where
they were (such as shelters or temporary housing). Given such an emergency
situation, many communities tended to pretend that there were no rapes or any
other sexual crimes.
During the High-Level Intergovernmental Meeting on Beijing+10 held in New
York, February 2005, participants sought solutions to infringements of women’shuman rights, particularly sexual violence, in areas hit by disaster or involvedin conflict. In Japan, it is required to seek effective solutions by incorporating
post-disaster programs gender-sensitive viewpoints, especially measures toprevent violence against women. At the same time in non-emergencies, one
should work to develop measures for the prevention of domestic violence andthe creation of systems to support women victims. Above all, one must foster
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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an environment where the victims of sexual violence can easily report thecriminal acts without risk.
Table 4.1 Kobe Earthquake Gender Issues

Issues after Kobe Earthquake
Economic Impacts

Women’s Poverty
Mass Dismissal of Part-timers

Health and Social Health and prevention of domestic/sexual violence
Impacts

Impact of shelter life on women’s healthInsufficient support for pregnant women and motherswith infants

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5. Conclusion and Way Forward
5.1 Generic observations
5.1.1. Women’s Participation in Disaster Reduction and Post-Disaster
Reconstruction
At the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR), heldin Kobe in January 2005, the Japanese government announced its Initiatives for
Disaster

Reduction.

The

Initiatives’

basic

policiesaretopromotegender-sensitive perspectives. Specifically, the Initiative stipulates as follows:“Women are more vulnerable to disasters than men are because of existing
gender-related imbalance in various aspects, including the levels ofparticipation in policymaking and economic activities, along with access to
information. It is therefore essential to support women in every aspect ofdisaster reduction from gender-sensitive perspectives.” In July 2005, theJapanese government revised the Basic Disaster Prevention Planning toincorporate gender-sensitive perspectives. A Cabinet Office taskforce to study
the “Basic Plan for Gender Equality” will also initiate studies of gender equality
within the context of disaster reduction and post-disaster reconstruction.
5.1.2. Operation of Shelters immediately after the Great Hanshin-Awaji
Earthquake
Of the 310,000 victims, whose houses collapsed or were damaged by theearthquake, 180,000 took shelter at school buildings. Although various surveys
have been conducted regarding the roles of shelter leaders. Few of thesesurveys reported on the gender ratio of the same leaders.
According to the only extant record, which was prepared by Ashiya, only two
female leaders out of a total of 25 leaders for 25 shelters in Ashiya. This kind ofgender imbalance is partly attributable to the automatic selection of men, who
are community and or local volunteer group leaders, as shelter representatives.
Another factor involves the majority of women not being able to fulfill aleader’s responsibilities due to their family obligations.
Although many study reports were prepared on disaster and post-disastersituations, few such reports contain gender-based data or analyses. Althoughnatural disasters hit everyone at the same time, the damage men and women
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

Page 43they receive and the speed at which they recover respectively is different.
When a tsunami attacked the coast of Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, it
again proved this point.
5.1.3 Participation of Women in Disaster Reduction and Post-disaster
Reconstruction Planning
The image of women as only victims or vulnerable people is also biased.
Immediately after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, I saw many women runningto collapsed houses with hand saws to rescue victims trapped under the houses;
exerting leadership by cooking hot meals to share with other victims; andorganizing volunteer groups dedicated to washing laundry. Such women wereamazingly powerful and energetic.
They knew exactly what other victims needed and allocated limited resources
adequately by organizing groups and networks with great flexibility. Women’s
knowledge and abilities are essential for various post-disaster programs.
The earthquake destroyed a lot of communities. This situation still impacts
heavily on our daily lives and discourages recovery from mental stress.
Presently, mostly women support daily life in these local communities.
However, men in their prime engage in reconstruction programs whichemphasize the rebirth of big cities above local communities. If womenparticipated in local reconstruction programs, how important the rebirth of
local communities is would be emphasized.
5.2 Policy Implication and its Implementation
The theme of women in disaster situations was not taken up in Japan until
some ten years after the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995, with the occurrenceof the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquakes of 2004. It was with these earthquakes thatthe government for the first time stationed workers on site specifically charged
with dealing with matters from a “women’s perspective” and it was announced
that excavation sites and the like would be greatly improved. As it happened, it
was just around this time that the government was preparing its second basic
Gender Equality plan, and the category of “disaster prevention and disasterrevival” was incorporated into this second plan. Thus, little by little, theunderstanding of women’s needs in an emergency has begun to spread
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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There is still no attention being paid, however, to women’s situations after the
initial emergency has passed and work begins on reconstruction 21. Disasterdamage containment is still perceived as the work of men, and there have been
no studies made of trends as seen from a woman’s perspective during and aftera disaster, even though a women’s perspective is actually essential in therecovery and reconstruction stages.

If we are to learn from the past and createa society that can cope with and reduce the effects of a disaster, amultidimensional and flexible approach that includes the encouragement of
women’s participation is needed.
In a disaster-stricken area, the gap of wealth and poverty widens in the processof restoration and revival. As traditional sex roles are revived, women are
exposed to the stress of human relations. Yet violence and discrimination
towards women tend to be denied and ignored.
The problems of disaster and gender are explored from two viewpoints. One isthe viewpoint of protecting women from violence and illness after a disaster,and the other is the viewpoint of utilizing female power. Women are effective
agents for revival and can contribute to community disaster prevention. But if
too much attention is paid to the long hours put in by men who work without
rest, such “heartwarming stories” tend to relegate women’s activities to thesidelines.

Putting an emphasis on the women’s viewpoint in achieving

recovery, makes for greater diversity of approaches and the realization of asafer society. This has already been confirmed through the experiences ofdisaster in the international community.
In this context, it is suggested that the national and local governments must
execute the following measures 22:-

Select women as members responsible for decision-making regarding
disaster reduction and post-disaster reconstruction planning; employ

Analysis of the Gender Structure of Disaster and Post-Disaster Revival: In the Case of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake,
Aikawa Yasuko

21

22Epilogue: 10 years after the Great Hanshin Earthquake～By Reiko Masai, Women’s Net Kobe

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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women as leaders of reconstruction programs,
-

Adopt

concretemeasurestoensurewomen’s

participationindecision-making by clearly publicizing numerical targets and the target
period,-Seek and use women’s knowledge and expertise accumulated through their
participation in community and NPO activities,-

Provide training on gender issues for staff members who will be dispatched
for rescue and relief activities as well as to post-disaster reconstruction; and-Dispatch women to disaster sites when this is deemed as appropriate.

Disaster reduction is deeply related to daily efforts. Residents should constantly
review whether or not the town they live in has advanced welfare programs;
whether or not the town authority is actively promoting gender-equality; andpeople in their society respect human rights. A society where women are overly“protected” in the name of “respect of femininity” is a society where inequality
between men and women is deeply embedded. Moreover, such a society isextremely vulnerable to disasters.
Although in Japan most social services are currently provided to households,
rather than to individuals, this system should also be revised so that both single
and married women can access such services. Every woman has a right to leadan independent and secure life even if she is not married or does not havechildren.
The policy map 23 presented below is intended to serve as a template that could
be applied to any polity, at all main levels of jurisdiction. It is a tool that
identifies the policies which impact on specific areas with gender implications
in a disaster context, and which, when taken together, imply an advanced levelof gender mainstreaming. Its systematic application has the double benefit ofclearly identifying those areas where progress has already been made, andproviding guidance towards policy reform where it is needed.
The policy map has the following features:

23“Mainstreaming Gender into Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction, SF/CDD Handbook, World Bank Internal Document.

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o Policy areas are categorised according to the administrative level
responsible for enacting the relevant policy provisions. These range
from the central government level to the local authority, with aseparate range of responsibilities suggested for disaster management
institutions. Given the variation among national administrative
systems, the number of institutional categories considered and theexact distribution of policy areas across these levels will vary within
limits from case to case. It is, however, very important to determine
the locus of responsibility for each policy area in every case, in order
to avoid inaction due to ambiguities and to facilitate a timely
response.
o At each institutional level, policies are grouped into those that aredisaster-specific, and those that are general policies which mediate theimpact that disasters have on those affected. As an example, putting
houses built as part of a post-disaster reconstruction effort jointly inthe names of both spouses is disaster-specific policy. Legislation toacknowledge the general and equal right of women to own andinherit property is general policy, whose existence or absence when adisaster strikes makes an enormous difference to the ability of thoseaffected to recover.
Before its application to a particular case, the policy map therefore takes theform of a structured list similar to that provided below. This example assumes adecentralised system such as a federal polity, where the component states
constitute an administrative category of their own. In the case of centralised
systems, most of the policies listed under the state level in this example would
be assumed as the responsibility of the central government.
5.3 Risk Communication and Gender Inclusion
Disaster prevention’s key stakeholder is residents and government. Whilesignificant focus has been given to the hard measures through infrastructurebuilding and improvements, little has done for the soft measures witheducation and communication. Disaster education has to make a balance of“grown local leader” and “understanding risk information”. Target of “grown
Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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local leader” is local leader and person having interest about disasterprevention and mitigation. Those education’s contents is support to grown
decision thinking at emergency situation. Target of “understanding risk
information” is person who stays in the home for a long time and person whocare handicap people. Takeuchi (2008) 24 pointed out that the, best target person
is male of 50-70 years old and female of 30-60 years old.
Risk, risk perception and risk communication have been dealt with by many
authors in different perspectives. Risk can be seen in different ways 25:-

As a hazard;-

As a probability;-

As a consequence; and-As a threat (Slovic and Weber, 2002) 26.

Slovic (1987) 27 has described risk perception from different sources: geography,sociology, political science, anthropology and psychology. While geographicalresearch focused on understanding human behavior for natural hazards,
sociological and anthropological studies have shown that perception andacceptance of risk have their roots in social and cultural factors. Psychologicalresearches include fear level prior to the event as well as confidence in one’s
available resources. Slovic et al. (1981) 28 observed that risk perception is related
to three major factors: dread, familiarity and exposure. Lindell (1994) 29 relates
perceived risk with characteristic of a hazard agent and perceived personalconsequences, which, in turn, is related to available physical and psychologicalcoping capacities. Lindell (1994) also stressed that factors affecting risk
perception are usually not independent, and vary across different hazard types
and people.

24 Takeuchi Y. (2008): The education of sediment disaster generation process including sediment transport to resident’s action in
Hiroshima City, In World Landslide Forum, Tokyo.
25 Shaw R. et al. (2004): Linking experience, education, perception and earthquake experiences. In Disaster Prevention andManagement, Vol. 23, No. 1, 39-49.
26 Slovic, P. and Weber, E. (2002), ``Perception of risk posed by extreme events’’, paper presented at the Conference on Risk
Management Strategies in an Uncertain World, New York, NY.
27 Slovic, P. (1987), ``Perception of risk’’, Science, Vol. 236 pp. 280-5.
28 Slovic, P., Fishhoff, B. and Lichtenstein, S. (1981), ``Perceived risk: psychological factors and social implications’’, Proceedingsof the Royal Society of London, Vol. A376, pp. 17-34.
29 Lindell, M.K. (1994), ``Perceived characteristics of environmental hazards’’, International Journal of Mass Emergencies andDisasters, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 303-26.

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However, a clear difference should be noted in the concept and definition ofexisting knowledge, perceived risk and actions to reduce risk. A survey after
the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake of Los Angeles showed that residents
acknowledged the threat, but the level of personal risk perception was foundlower (Burger and Palmer, 1992) 30. Similarly, studies from Turkey (Fisek et al.,
2002; Onculer, 2002) 31 showed that willingness of house owners to pay for thestrengthening of buildings depends much on their perceived risk at family andcommunity level. Thus, there are three distinct issues:-

Knowledge on hazard and risk (which can be provided througheducation, awareness-raising campaign);-

Perceived risk at individual, family and community level (which can bedone through participatory approach in different levels); and-Willingness to take action to reduce risk (which can be done throughdeveloping a culture of disaster preparedness).

At each of these steps gender issues play important role.

For pre-disaster

preparedness risk perception is different from different gender group.

A

study in drought prone areas shows that while male is more interested to havethe system dependency on water resource management, female groups are
more interested to be self-dependent on the water resources, due to uncertaintyof the system.
Risk communication is another factor which needs attention. Bhatti (2001)32
argued that three basic actors are involved in risk communication: originating,communicating, and receiving certain information. Different stakeholders play
important roles as the actors in the communication process. Bhatti (2001) also
argued that culture plays a crucial role in risk communication process, andtraditional risk knowledge should be merged with the modern risk knowledge
to create a better risk management and preparedness regime.

30 Burger, J.M. and Palmer, M.I. (1992), ``Changes in and generalization of unrealistic optimism following
experiences with stressful events: reaction to the 2.9.89 California earthquake’’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.
18 No. 1, pp. 39-43.
31 Fisek, G., Yeniceri, N., Muderrisoglu, S. and Ozkarar, G. (2002), ``Risk perception and attitudes towards
mitigation’’, paper presented at the IIASA-DPRI Meeting on Integrated Risk Management, Luxemburg.
Onculer, A. (2002), ``Turkish homeowner’s willingness to pay for earthquake mitigation measures’’, paper presented at the
IIASA-DPRI Meeting on Integrated Risk Management, Luxemburg.
32 Bhatti, A. (2001), ``Risk perception, culture and communication: a south Asian experience’’, paper
presented at the Fifth Conference of European Sociological Association, Helsinki

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Rohrmann (1998) 33 proposed a model of risk communication process, which
acknowledged that risk reduction behavior was not just delivering theinformation or message, but a complex factor of personal evaluation processincluding prior attitudes. Thus, as argued by Enders (2001) 34 , the risk
communication process is very much depending on the socio-economic andcultural issues. Johnston et al. (1999) 35 relates several factors to preparedness:
perceived risk; .amount of relevant information; level of past damages; salienceof hazard; and level of knowledge about the threat.
Russell et al. (1995) 36 referred to socio-economic factors, personality and hazard
related variables as important elements for preparedness. Reviewing the modelof Rohrmann (1996) 37, Enders (2001) proposed a model for behavioral change,
which has the following steps:-

Attention;-

Comprehension;-

Interpretation;-

Confirmation;-

Acceptance;-

Retention; and-Behavioral change

The model illustrates that awareness and preparedness are only part of acontinuum from information attainment to behavioral change. Again, genderissues are very much linked to different levels of behavior change in the risk
communication model.

While gender groups need specific attention on

specific issues of privacy, health and sanitation issues, comprehension andacceptance of risk information to the women group may be different from thatof male group.

This issue should be properly recognized in a risk

communication framework.
Rohrmann, B. (1998), ``Assessing hazard information/ communication programs’’, Australian Psychologist, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp.
105-12.
34 Rohrmann, B. (1998), ``Assessing hazard information/ communication programs’’, Australian Psychologist, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp.
105-12.
35 Johnston, D.M., Bebbington, M.S., Lai, C.D., Houghton, B.F.
and Paton, D. (1999), ``Volcanic hazard perceptions: comparative shifts in knowledge and risk’’, Disaster Prevention andManagement, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 118-26.
36 Russell, L.A., Goltz, J.D. and Bourque, L.B. (1995), ``Preparedness and hazard mitigation actions before and after twoearthquakes’’, Environment and Behavior, Vol. 27 No. 6, pp. 774-70.
37 Rohrmann, B. (1998), ``Assessing hazard information/ communication programs’’, Australian Psychologist, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp.
105-12.
33

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In summary, risk perception and risk communication are very much related to
an individual’s social, cultural, economic and personal background, which verymuch depends on the gender group.

From perceived risk to action for risk

reduction is a long way, and is influenced by different factors, which vary
according to hazards.
5.4 Way Forward
To enhance the gender inclusion in the disaster risk reduction in Japan, there
are two specific interventions required in both pre-disaster and post-disaster
phases. This can be summarized as follow:-

Pre-disaster Preparedness Phase: As evident from the case study ofHiroshima, risk communication to the women group is an absolute
requirement for the preparedness.

The community meetings are generally

dominated by male group, and often the discussion does not percolate to thefemale members of the family.

Therefore, the risk information is verymuch limited to one single group in the community.

There are different

ways to disseminate information to the female group: one, by encouraging
more female participants in the community meetings.

The other way isthrough participatory education through school children.

Recently, town

watching or neighborhood watching is found to be a very useful tool ofdisaster education, and through interactions with the children, and PTA(Parent Teacher Association), it is possible to encourage wider participationof the mothers group.

Therefore, proactive school based community

education can play a significant role in risk reduction in gender sectors.
-

Post-disaster Reconstruction and Recovery Phase: As evident from theKobe case study, it is of utmost importance that proper gender sensitive
policy should be formulated from the very first day after the disaster.
is applicable to both evacuation areas and temporary shelters.

This

Specialprovision needs to be made on the temporary shelter, since people tend tolive in those areas almost 2-3 years.

Special emphasis needs to be given on

the social participation of the female groups. Non-government or non-profit
organizations can play important roles in facilitating problem solving of
women groups in these phases.

Special hotline needs to be established,

Gender and DRR: Japanese Experiences

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which should be strongly linked to the local governments.

Media can play

an important role in the brining relevant issues to public attention, and can
act as the pressure group for inclusion of gender issues in reconstruction
policy.

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Appendix 1: Interview Survey in Hiroshima
Hiroshima City Government, 1-3 October 2008
Person Interviewed: Mr. Harutoshi Nishii, Head of Hiroshima City Fire
Department

Collective Community Activities by Women Group in Hiroshima City

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Appendix 2: Disaster Management Section of Cabinet Office ofGovernment of Japan
Date: 24th of October 2008
Persons Interviewed:- Yuzuru Tachii, Deputy Director- Tatsuya Aizawa, Project Officer

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Appendix 3: Gender Equality Bureau of Cabinet Office of Government ofJapan
Date: 24th of October 2008
Persons Interviewed:-

Aya Yamaguchi, Deputy Director General Affairs Division-

Junko Minami, Deputy Director General Affairs Division-

Masae Yamauchi, Deputy Director General Affairs Division

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Appendix 4: Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Date: 24th of October 2008
Persons Interviewed:-

SatoruMimura,Director,

DisasterManagement

Division1,

GlobalEnvironmental Group-Aya Okada, Focal Person, Disaster Management Division1, Global
Environmental Group

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Appendix 5: NPO Women’s Net KOBE
Date of Interview: 27th October 2008
Person Interviewed: Reiko Masai, Head of Women’s Net Kobe

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Appendix 6: Community Activities in Nagata Elementary School, Kobe
Focus Group Discussion with local communities

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