Joint statement and Cooperation of 30 disaster-related academic societies of Japan-Global sharing of the findings from the past great earthquake disasters in JapanMasako Yoneda 1*, Akira Wada 2, Teruhiko Yoda 3, Kazuo Tamura 4, Yasushi Asami 5 and Kimiro Meguro 5
Steering Committee of Academic Society Liaison Association Corresponding to the Great East Japan Earthquake
Members of Science Council of Japan, 7-22-34, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-8555, Japan
1
Professor, Keio University, 2 Professor Emeritus, Tokyo Institute of Technology,3 Professor, Waseda University,4Professor, Chiba Institute of Technology, 5 Professor, The University of Tokyo
Corresponding e-mail: yoneda@sd.keio.ac.jp

Abstract

After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the members of Science Council of Japan became founders and30 academic societies relevant to disaster management gathered and established Academic Society Liaison
Association. This association aims to collaborate across academies and deepen mutual understanding beyond
different expertise. Prior to the World Engineering Conference and Convention 2015, we declared “Joint
Statement of 30 Disaster-Related Academic Societies of Japan”. Experience and knowledge learnt fromnatural disasters should be widely applied to reduce all disasters worldwide.
Keywords: the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Gaps among specialties, Academic society liaison

1. Introduction
Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in March 11,
2011. Kamaishi breakwater was constructed twoyears before the earthquake and recorded in theGuinness book as the deepest breakwater in theworld. But it was destroyed by huge Tsunami. Theearthquake was exceeded our expectations and ourscience and engineering were not enough.

research fields are involved, such as earthquake,tsunami, active faults, earthquake engineering, windengineering, fire, disaster prevention planning andemergency medical care. We need comprehensive
platform beyond the boundaries.
After the 2011 Earthquake, the members of Science
Council of Japan became founders and 30 academic
societies relevant to disaster management gatheredand established Academic Society Liaison
Association to deepen mutual understanding andmake efforts to integrate different specialties.

What
Scientists &Engineersdiscussed.

Kamaishi deepest breakwater

2011/3/11 15:44

Japanese scientists and engineers have worked hardfor disaster reduction, but they were divided into
each specialty. Specialization has caused gaps.
For example, the design and technology ofbuildings against earthquakes are mainly forvibration. Tsunami was out of consideration. The
accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power
Station was caused by the neglection of Tsunami
hazard. In Fukushima, there was no big tsunami forthree hundred years.
In academic world, specialization has been
progressed and integration has been weakened. For
prevention and mitigation of disasters, a number of!"#$%&''()*'+"#$%",'-./"/#&%'0"+1#'2&'/#344&-'5
2. Serial Symposiums Across Academies
The Association and Science Council of Japan held
10 serial symposiums of ‘How to protect people’slives and national land from huge disasters’ from2011 to 2015. This Association aims to collaborate
across academies and discuss the future direction
beyond different expertise.
Based on these activities, we presented Joint
Statement of 30 Academic Societies “Proposal for
Revision of Japanese Disaster Prevention andReduction Policies” on May 10, 2012.

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Representatives of the association and academic
societies handed this joint statement over to Ministerof Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Cabinet Office
Minister in charge of Disaster Prevention, andMinister of Education, Culture, Sports and Science.
The Japanese government showed interest to thisstatement.
We also published a special feature in "Trends inthe Sciences" March 2013, monthly magazine of theScience Council, as the results of the activities ofAcademic Society Liaison Association.

10th symposium on November 29, 2014

The 10th of the Serial Symposiums was held in
advance of the World Engineering Conference andConvention in Kyoto. Experience and knowledge
acquired from natural disasters including the 2011
Earthquake and the 1995 Kobe Earthquake should beapplied for disaster reduction in the world.
3. Joint Statement of 30 Academic Societies
Based on these activities, we declared “Joint
Statement of 30 Disaster-Related Academic Societiesof Japan”, and published the booklet that consists of
30 academic societies’ international activities andinitiatives against the great earthquakes. The jointstatement is shown in the following pages.
Even if each research is deepened, regional
disaster mitigation is not actually improved without
the collaboration among different fields. Steering
Committee of Academic Society Liaison Association
recommends that researchers of different fields
participate the practical project in specified area
under the local constraints.
Especially, young
researchers need the comprehensive study on the site.	 
4. Conclusions
We present this Joint Statement and appeal thatexperience and knowledge learnt from natural
disasters should be widely applied to reduce alldisasters worldwide.

In Japan, Nankai Trough and Tokyo Metropolitan
Inland Earthquakes are feared. In the world, there is atendency that disasters occurs severer and more
frequently. We must prepare for next catastrophes.
Science Council of Japan and 30 Academic Societies
will collaborate across academies to promote
multidisciplinary research for disaster reduction inthe world.
Acknowledgements
These five-year activities were promoted bycouncil members of the Science Council of Japanand supported by the presidents and the members of
the 30 societies shown in this paper.
Science Council of Japan established newcommitteeforpromotinginterdisciplinary
cooperation of disaster reduction and disaster
restoration on July 2015 and started to help ouractivities. We are requested that we had better target
various kinds of natural disasters.
As the successor of this association, we are going toestablish “Japan Academic Network for Disaster
Reduction” on January 9th, 2016. This network
targets not only earthquakes but also natural disasters
in general. We welcome newcomer academies ofvarious fields. This network will deepen thecooperation between different academies fromnormal times. When large disaster occurs, thisnetwork works as emergency contact network
between academies and government and society.
Thus, Interdisciplinary collaboration is going tospread steadily. We hope that researchers andengineers will have more interest on other fields andproceed their research from comprehensive point ofview, with filling the gaps of specialization.

Science Council of Japan and Representatives of 30
Academic Societies, November 29, 2014
REFERENCES
Academic Society Liaison Association Corresponding to theGreat East Japan Earthquake, Special Feature "How to Protect
Peoples’ Lives and National Land from Huge Disasters- Proposal
from 30 Academic Societies", Trends in the Sciences, Japan
Science Support Foundation, pp. 7-91, March 2013.

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Joint Statement of 30 Disaster-Related Academic Societies of Japan
Global sharing of the findings
from the Past Great Earthquake Disasters in Japan- Toward the 2015 United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction - Toward the World Engineering Conference and Convention 2015 -November 29, 2014

Academic Society Liaison AssociationCorresponding to the Great East Japan Earthquake
Executive Committee (members of the Committee on Civil Engineering/Architecture of Science Council of Japan)
Architectural Institute of Japan
Atomic Energy Society of Japan
Institute of Social Safety Science
Japan Association for Fire Science and Engineering
Japan Concrete InstituteJapan Society for Natural Disaster Science
Japan Society of Engineering Geology
Japan Society on Water Environment
Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture
The Japan Landslide Society
The Japanese Geotechnical Society
The Japanese Society of Irrigation, Drainage and Rural Engineering
The Society of Environmental Instrumentation Control and Automation
The Society of Instrument and Control Engineers
Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management

Association for Children’s Environment
Geographic Information Systems Association of JapanJapan Association for Earthquake Engineering
Japan Association for Planning and Public Management
Japan Society for Disaster Information Studies
Japan Society of Civil Engineers
Japan Society of Erosion Control Engineering
Japanese Association for Disaster Medicine
The City Planning Institute of JapanThe Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
The Japanese Society for Active Fault Studies
The Seismological Society of JapanThe Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of JapanThe Japan Association for Regional Economic Studies

東日本大震災の総合対応に関する学協会連絡会 （英語名と同順）
幹事会 （日本学術会議 土木工学・建築学委員会）
日本建築学会、 こども環境学会、 日本原子力学会、 地理情報システム学会、 地域安全学会、 日本地震工学会、日本火災学会、
日本計画行政学会、 日本コンクリート工学会、 日本災害情報学会、 日本自然災害学会、 土木学会、 日本応用地質学会、 砂防学会、
日本水環境学会、 日本集団災害医学会、 日本造園学会、 日本都市計画学会、 日本地すべり学会、 日本機械学会、 地盤工学会、
日本活断層学会、 農業農村工学会、 日本地震学会、 環境システム計測制御学会、 空気調和・衛生工学会、 計測自動制御学会、
日本地域経済学会、 廃棄物資源循環学会

3Joint Statement of 30 Disaster-Related Academic Societies of Japan
Global sharing of the findings
from the Past Great Earthquake Disasters in Japan- Toward the 2015 United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction - Toward the World Engineering Conference and Convention 2015 –The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake (Great East Japan Earthquake) was hugeand exceeded our expectations. Its induced damage was so serious that we are still recoveringfrom it and still face many issues. Response activities undertaken against the accident of theFukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station are very difficult and insufficient to alleviate its
impact to both inland and marine environments.
For many years, Japanese scientists and engineers have been trying to establish scientificknowledge and to develop technologies for disaster reduction, but they were divided into eachspecialty. Specialization has caused significant knowledge gaps and communicationdifficulties among specialties. Issues between specialties have not been tackled. There is aserious reflection that we blindly believed our scientific knowledge and technologies and we
didn’t have enough sense of the awe and humble feeling to nature.
After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, we, 30 Japanese academic societies related todisaster management, started to deepen mutual understanding and made efforts to integratedifferent specialties. We also studied lessons for better recovery and preparedness from the1995 Kobe Earthquake disaster and others.
Experience and knowledge learnt from natural disasters should be widely applied to reduce
all disasters worldwide. Prior to the United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk
Reduction (March, 2015 Sendai, Japan) and the World Engineering Conference andConvention 2015 (November, 2015 Kyoto, Japan), representatives from these 30 academic
societies relevant to disaster management, have started to discuss ways of exchanging veryrare and important experience and knowledge on such disasters.
For global sharing, the representatives of 30 societies declare to promote the following
actions:
1. Serious soul-searching on blind belief in our science and technologies
We, Japanese scientists and engineers, have been trying to establish scientific knowledge andto develop technologies for disaster reduction and we could reduce damage by natural
hazards to lower levels than before. But based on the experiences after the 2011 Great East
Japan Earthquake, we seriously recognized that there was blind belief in our scientificknowledge and technologies and that they were not enough. We should always question ourknowledge and never forget the sense of awe and humble feeling to nature for
implementation of a disaster safe society.

42. Sharing of our experiences with international community
We will contribute to disaster reduction around the world by sharing the lessons learnt fromthe past earthquake disasters, such as the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the 1995
Kobe Earthquake disasters. We will emphasize the importance of pre-event countermeasures
including damage mitigation, preparedness, disaster prediction and early warning, andwarning for the possibility of unexpected huge hazards with extremely low probability.
3. Collaboration of academic societies
We will collaborate across academies to promote multidisciplinary research for disaster
reduction and sustainable development. The researchers in both natural and social sciencefields, such as physical science, engineering, medicine, sociology, and economics etc. will
work together to create practical measures that have been examined from various
perspectives.
4. Application to local communities
We will integrate different specialties and establish comprehensive and effective risk
reduction countermeasures for local communities around the world as well as in Japan,
considering each local environment and condition.
5. Enhancing earth observation and strengthening international human network
We will enhance the global earth observation and monitoring system, and carry out broad andintegrated studies across the earth sciences, focusing on evolution and dynamics of the earth.
We will pursue the cause of natural disasters and strengthen the international network ofresearchers and practitioners for disaster reduction.
6. Resiliency for huge hazards that exceed conventional expectations
We will consider the preparedness against huge hazards, which lie beyond conventionalexpectations. Even if it seems to be technically impossible, we will do our best to find a way
to reduce the impact due to the hazard considering environmental issues and needs foruninterrupted business and social activities during and after severe disasters.
7. Human resource development
We will promote the capacity building of scientists and engineers worldwide by sharing
knowledge and experiences learnt from the past earthquake disasters around the world. We
will develop Japanese experts in comprehensive disaster management who can work
nationally and internationally. We will also train local experts who can contribute to local
disaster risk control and management.
8. Public awarenessWe will improve public awareness, which is one of the most important measures for disaster
reduction. Pre-disaster countermeasures are effective in both human security and economicgrowth. We will present the knowledge based on the experiences from the past earthquake
disasters in an easy-to-understand format to the public. We will promote understanding of theself-help effort, mutual assistance and public support, and will appeal their importance fordisaster reduction to the public.

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Academic Society Liaison Association Corresponding to the Great East Japan Earthquake
Executive Committee (members of the Committee on Civil Engineering/Architecture of Science Council of Japan)
Steering: Akira Wada, Teruhiko Yoda, Kazuo Tamura, Masako Yoneda, Yasushi Asami and Kimiro MeguroMasanori Hamada, Shunsuke Ikeda, Mitsuru Senda, Masashi Kamon,
Toshimitsu Komatsu, Haruo Hayashi, Toshihiro Iwatate, Yoshiaki Nakano, Junji Kiyono
Architectural Institute of Japan
President, Hiroshi Yoshino,
Izuru Takewaki,
Yuji Hasemi,
Yasumori Maki
Association for Children’s Environment
President, Kimiko Kozawa,
Mitsuru Senda,
Yutaka Nakayama
Atomic Energy Society of Japan
President, Reiko Fujita,
Hiroshi Miyano,
Tadashi Inoue,
Takanori Tanaka, Naoto Sekimura
Geographic Information Systems Association of Japan
President, Keiji Yano,
Yasushi Asami,
Wanglin Yan,
Michinori Hatayama
Institute of Social Safety Science
President, Shigeo Tatsuki,
Michio Miyano,
Eiichi Itoigawa,Takaaki KatoJapan Association for Earthquake Engineering
President, Susumu Yasuda,
Yukio Shiba,
Hajime Shinkai
Japan Association for Fire Science and Engineering
President, Takeyoshi Tanaka, Tokiyoshi Yamada
Japan Association for Planning and Public Management
President, Sukehiro Hosono,
Takashi Onishi,
Toshinori Nemoto, Kayoko Yamamoto
Japan Concrete Institute
President, Hirozo Mihashi,
Toru Kawai
Japan Society for Disaster Information Studies
President, Akihiko Nunomura, Isao Nakamura
Japan Society for Natural Disaster SciencePresident, Kazuo Takahashi,
Kimiro Meguro,Kaoru Takara,
Fumihiko Imamura
Japan Society of Civil Engineers
President, Masahiko Isobe,
Riki Honda
Japan Society of Engineering Geology
President, Shuichi Hasegawa, Masahiro Chigira, Yasunori Otsuka,
Hisatoshi Ito,
Fumiaki Nomura
Japan Society of Erosion Control Engineering
President, Yoshiharu Ishikawa, Masao Okamoto,
Masakazu Suzuki, Hiroshi Kawabe
Japan Society on Water Environment
President, Akiyoshi Sakota,
Hiroaki Furumai,
Yoshirou Ono,
Mitsuaki Ito
Japanese Association for Disaster Medicine
President, Yasuhiro Yamamoto, Yuichi KoidoJapanese Institute of Landscape Architecture
President, Akio Shimomura,
Ryohei Ono
The City Planning Institute of Japan
President, Norihiro Nakai,
Naofumi Takeuchi
The Japan Landslide Society
President, Satoshi Tsuchiya,
Daisuke Higaki,
Hirotaka Ochiai,
Satoshi Goto,
Hiroomi Nakazato
The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
President, Shiro Kubo,
Masaki Shiratori
The Japanese Geotechnical Society
President, IkuoTowhata,
Makoto Suzuki,
Mamoru Mimura, Motoki Kazama, Jun Ohbayashi
The Japanese Society for Active Fault Studies
President, Atsumasa Okada,
Hiroshi Une
The Japanese Society of Irrigation, Drainage and Rural Engineering
President, Tsugihiro Watanabe, Takeshi Kikutsuji, Akiko Kuroda
The Seismological Society of Japan
President, Teruyuki Kato,
Kazutoshi Imanishi, Keiichi Tadokoro, Aitaro KatoThe Society of Environmental Instrumentation Control and Automation
President, Yoshihisa Shimizu, Kunio Waseda,
Takuji Nakazato,
Masaki Takaoka
The Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan
President, Takashi Inoue,
Masaya Okumiya, Hiroaki Tomita,
Yasuo Murata,
Toshiharu Ikaga
The Society of Instrument and Control Engineers
President, Ryuichi Nakata,
Satoshi Honda,Toshiharu Sugie,
Masami Namiki
The Japan Association for Regional Economic Studies
President, Tomohiro Okada,
Makoto Suzuki,
Yoshifumi Ikejima
Japan Society of Material Cycles and Waste Management
President, Toshihiko Matsuto, Toshiaki Yoshioka, Yuichi Moriguchi
Cooperation:
Muneyoshi Numada, Hiroki Kobayashi‘Academic Society Liaison Association Corresponding to the Great East Japan Earthquake’
The members of Science Council of Japan become founders and 30 academic societies relevant to disaster management gathered
since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. This Association and Science Council of Japan held 10 serial symposiumsof ‘How to protect people’s lives and national land from huge hazards’. This Association aims to collaborate across academies anddeepen mutual understanding, and discuss the direction of future beyond different expertise. This activity is supported by theInterdisciplinary sub-committee set up under the Committee on Civil Engineering / Architecture of Science Council of Japan.
      Homepage: http://jeqnet.org/sympo/index.html  Contact to: onoguchi.h.aa@m.titech.ac.jp (secretariat)

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