We are pleased to edit this special issue, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) Frontier Research on Science and Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience 2025, at the timing after the Noto Peninsula disasters in 2024 as well as the launch of the Nankai Trough Seafloor Observation Network for Earthquakes and Tsunamis (N-net) in 2025. The Noto Peninsula was seriously damaged not only by the earthquake in January but also by a record-breaking rainfall in September. In addition, Aomori Prefecture was very much damaged by heavy snowfall in the winter of 2024–2025. These events indicated that awareness, preparedness, monitoring, early warning and response are important to improve capacity of societies, which are vulnerable to various natural hazards to reduce disaster risk and enhance resilience. This special issue includes ten articles (eight papers, one survey report, and one review), addressing above-mentioned issues.

Since the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake clearly demonstrated that ports are critical lifelines for disaster response and logistics, Dohi et al. assess the seismic uplift risks to ports, focusing on the Nankai Trough earthquake. Fujita et al. explore the feasibility of using multi-sensing data to ensure a rapid response to isolated settlements based on the 2024 Noto earthquake. Chiba et al. investigate societal expectations regarding mechanisms that encourage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to adopt business continuity measures, as many SMEs have limited awareness and resources. Yamazaki-Honda reviews the land-use regulations in Japan and suggests that it is crucial to establish a spatial disaster risk reduction master plan with a defined timeline to effectively reduce exposure to disaster risks. Nagashima et al. present inversion analyses to improve hypocenter determination and earthquake magnitude assessment in the sea area, using the Japan Trench S-net, which is a part of Monitoring of Waves on Land and Seafloor (MOWLAS) including the N-net. Takaya et al. and Nishi et al. evaluate the damage risks of seismic motion to air conditioning systems and building equipment, using the E-Defense, a world No. 1 large-scale shaking table operated by NIED. Based on the 2016 event in Hokkaido, Akita reveals that riverbank erosion and landslides played major roles in sediment runoff during extreme rainfall. Ishizawa and Danjo propose a method to detect precursory signal of shallow landslides using observations from Typhoon Hagibis in 2019. Tamura examines the temperature changes affecting an increase in snowfall during early winter and rapid snowmelt in early spring.

We believe that these articles will provide valuable insights for readers and contribute to building a resilient society capable of withstanding and responding to catastrophic earthquake and extreme weather disasters.