On January 1, 2024, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula and nearby areas in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The earthquake resulted from shallow reverse faulting along a 150-km stretch of the Japan Sea coast, followed by a tsunami one minute later. The disaster killed 260 people, injured 1,579, and damaged 125,736 residential buildings across Ishikawa, Fukui, Toyama, and Niigata prefectures.

After the quake, fires destroyed over 200 buildings across 50,000 square meters in Wajima City. Ground shaking triggered landslides and building collapses, while widespread liquefaction in urban areas from Niigata to Ishikawa prefectures further damaged infrastructure along the Japan Sea coast.

The heavy rain on September 21, 2024, in the Noto area caused flooding and landslides, setting back recovery efforts and compounding the challenges faced since the January earthquake.

As Japan continues to grapple with population decline and aging, the lessons from the 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, and subsequent heavy rainfall and flooding, provide critical insights for future disaster resilience. The Journal of Disaster Research is launching a special collection to consolidate knowledge on these events. We invite submissions from diverse fields, including natural sciences, engineering, humanities, and social sciences, to explore disaster resilience, regional planning, social vulnerability, public health, and related topics.

We welcome contributions not only from academics but also from professionals and practitioners with on-the-ground experience, in the form of not just research papers and reports, but notes, materials, and other submissions as well, to share Japan’s knowledge and lessons on disaster resilience with the world. To broaden participation and encourage a wider range of contributions, we have waived publication charges for submissions to this Collection. Please note that submissions should be limited to topics directly correlating to the recent Noto Peninsula disasters.

Given the dynamic and multifaceted nature of disasters, it is crucial to share research findings without delay and systematically document events from onset through recovery. Leveraging the flexibility of online publishing, we will not set a fixed submission deadline, and accepted submissions will be published on a rolling basis as they pass review. At the end of the year, these articles will be compiled into a comprehensive collection. We hope this new publication method will improve both the timeliness and accessibility of the valuable insights in this Collection.

Regular paper submissions are always welcome!