The “risk society” has become a key 21^st century theme due to the economic expansion and population explosion spurred by science and technology development during the 20^th century. We must create societies resilient against risk to preserve well-being and continue sustainable development. Although the ideal would be to create a society free from disaster and crisis, resources are limited. To achieve a more resilient society using these resources, we must become wise enough to identify the risks threatening society and clarify how we are to prepare against them.

The traditional engineering approach is limited by its aim to reduce damage reduction as functional system of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability by focusing on mitigative action. We must instead add two factors – human activity and time dependency after a disaster – to make society more risk-resilient.

The Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) seeks to create new social, public, and economic value by solving obvious problems in society. In promoting science and technology R&D for society, RISTEX supports the building of networks enabling researchers and stakeholders to cooperate in solving societal problems. Our initiatives use R&D employing knowledge in the field of the humanities and social sciences, combined with natural sciences and technologies. Based on these existing accumulated knowledge and skills, scientifically verifying issues and lessons learned from these disasters, RISTEX launched a new R&D focus area, entitled “Creating a Community-Based Robust and Resilient Society,” in 2012. This R&D focus is to develop disaster risk reduction systems making society robust and resilient in the face of large-scale disasters.
(more…)

The basic policy of the Journal of Disaster Research (JDR), as a multidisciplinary academicjournal, is to cover all types of disasters ? except for war ? through a broad comprehensive perspective. Since its inaugural issue in August 2006, the JDR has been published bimonthly,with six issues a year. 2015 marks the tenth year since the JDRfs first issue. Among the many events happening during this decade is the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster which was induced by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake.This event had two major features ? that the tsunami accompanying the earthquake caused the main damage and that it triggered a nuclear hazard accident at a nuclear power plant. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster was a unprecedented earthquake disaster called catastrophic hazard following two others ? the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake Disasterthat leveled Tokyo and the 1995 Hanshin Awaji Earthquake Disaster that destroyed parts of Osaka and Kobe. In view of this catastrophic hazardfs scale, the JDR decided to publish special annual issues on the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster for five years since 2012 in addition to its regularissues. No publication fee was charged to contributors and support was asked from corporations. Papers on the special issues are published mainly online as an e-journal though printed editions are published for archival purposes. The current issue is the fourth of these special issues, and contributors have covered the 2011 disaster from many a wide range of perspectives. 21 papers were submitted and 8 papers are accepted for publication after peer review. The editors are confident that, like the previous three issues, this issue fully measure up to the quality that was expected for the special issue. I wish to express my gratitude to the contributors and reviewers and to thank corporations for their invaluable support.

It’s a great pleasure and honor to publish the special issue on “Fire and Disaster Prevention Technologies” in the Journal of Disaster Research. All of its 7 papers have been peerreviewed. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the contributors and reviewers involved in producing these articles, especially to Dr. Masafumi Hosokawa, Chief, Planning for Community-Based Cooperation National Research Institute of Fire and Disaster, Fire and Disaster Management Agency Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for his great support. The Research and Development center of Fire and Environmental Safety (RDFES) was established in April 2008 as a research institute within the Faculty of Environmental Engineering, the University of Kitakyushu. The RDFES is the first academic institute in Japan to contribute to environmental engineering and firefighting technology for social safety, and focuses on the environmental researches to overcome the worldwide serious firefighting problem, for example huge forest fires, and consequently contributes to create the epoch-making products for the environmental conservation and the safety of citizens. RDFES has become well known among firefighting professionals for its development of an “Environmentally friendly soap-based firefighting agent,” as well as new equipment that maximizes the effectiveness of the agent. This is just one example of successful collaboration between RDFES, the Kitakyushu City Fire and Disaster Management Department, a local soap company, and major firefighting enterprises in Japan. Today, RDFES is entering a new research area involving local communities and governments, which aims tomitigate and minimize the risk of fire and natural disasters. Researchers are engaged not only in the development of hardware but also in the creation of an organized social movement that could ensure more effective use of the hardware. We hope that the collaboration among industry, academia, and government will be more useful and powerful towards solving serious problems on “fire and environmental safety” through the mediation of this special issue. And reaching out to local communities reflects the center’s position to always welcome new partners to join our important and exciting research activities.

An increase in natural hazards due to global warming has broadened the gap between natural hazards and disaster prevention. This gap has raised the possibility that unexpected major disasters occur. As chances of a natural hazard grow, appropriate and efficient adaptation is considered as a last resort for lessening disaster. In water-related disasters such as floods and debris flows, individual disaster sites have specific thresholds (limits). When a natural hazard exceeds this threshold, a serious disaster strikes us. On the contrary when it is under the limit, disaster damage is kept to be small. Flood disasters and landslides have the side of gall or nothing.h This is a characteristic of water-related disasters. Climate change is causing natural hazards to exceed this threshold easily. This makes resilient proactive adaptation very important in disaster prevention. Specific adaptation measures developed hereafter must cope with serious water and sediment disasters throughout mountainous regions, rivers, urban areas, and coastal areas that are assumed to be influenced by global warming. The Journal of Disaster Research has planned a special issue on the adaptation measures for disasters due to climate change. Having taken part in field surveys, computer simulations, and laboratory experiments and finding adaptation measures worth studying more deeply, I decided to contribute to this special issue as a Guest Editor. All of its 11 papers have been peer-reviewed. The broad topics covered range from floods, landslides, and storm surges to adaptation to the human being society. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the contributors and reviewers involved in producing these articles, especially to Dr. Hideo Oshikawa, Assistant Professor of the Department of Urban and Environment Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan, for his great support. I look forward with great anticipation to feedback from readers regarding these articles.

TIEMS – The International Emergency Society founded in 1993 – is a global forum for education, training, certification and policy in emergency and disaster management. TIEMS is dedicated to developing a safer world by bringing the benefits of modern emergency management tools, techniques and good industry practice. The Japan Chapter of TIEMS was established in 2011 when Japan members agreed on the great worth of the Society’s mission.

The Japan Chapter organized the Oct. 20-23, 2014, TIEMS Annual Conference in Niigata. Niigata was chosen because the year 2014 had a special meaning in the history of disasters in Japan. That is, the memorials of four major disasters had memorial anniversaries in that year – the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Niigata Earthquake, the 40th anniversary of the 1974 Niigata Yakeyama Volcano eruption, and the 10th anniversaries of the 2004 Niigata-Fukushima flood and Niigata-Chuetsu earthquake. The event brought over 1,000 domestic and international participants together to discuss risk management and resilience against disasters. The event also provided many opportunities for participants to share their scientific knowledge learn about the lessons from past experience of practitioners in the disaster management field and view the industry exhibition emerging to a wide variety of experience in disaster response.

With so many experts and practitioners willing to make presentations at the Conference, the JDR has brought together selected 17 papers and other output from them. My colleagues and I am honored to make these TIEMS 2014 achievements known to the broadest possible audience, and we are assured that this will create many fruitful outcomes for our reading audience.

This special issue of JDR features 18 papers and reports on an international 2010 to 2015 cooperative project entitled gEnhancement of Earthquake and Volcano Monitoring and Effective Utilization of Disaster Mitigation Information in the Philippines.h This project is being conducted under the SATREPS program (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development), cosponsored by the JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).

The Philippines is one of the worldfs most earthquake and volcano disaster-prone countries because it is located along the active boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate. Collisions by the two plates generate plate subductions and crustal stress that generates earthquakes and volcanic activities on the archipelago.

The Philippines has experienced numerous disastrous earthquakes, the most recent being the 1990 M7.8 Luzon earthquake, which killed over 1,000 local residents. A damaging earthquake also occurred during this 5-year project, in October 2013, on Bohol Island, causing about 200 deaths when houses and other buildings collapsed.

Volcanoes are another major killer in the Philippines. The largest in the last century was when the Taal volcano erupted in 1911, killing 1,300 by a base surge. The 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption is known as the largest volcanic event in the 20^th century. The Mayon volcano is also known to be a beautiful but dangerous volcano that frequently erupts, causing lahars ? steaming moving fluid masses of volcanic debris and water ? that damaged villages at the foot of the mountain.

The PHIVOLCS (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology), a governmental agency mandated to monitor earthquakes and volcanoes, provides earthquake and volcano information and alerts to the public. It also conducts research on the mechanisms behind such natural phenomena and on evaluating such hazards and risks. The PHIVOLCSfs other mission is educating people and society on being prepared for disasters. Earthquake and volcano bulletins and alerts, research output, and educational materials and training provided by PHIVOLCS have enriched knowledge and enhanced measures against disaster.
(more…)

With the greatest pleasure, we present the second special issue of the Journal of Disaster Research (JDR), entitled Enhancement of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Technology in Peru. This follows the first special issue on the same theme. These special issues contain 36 articles, 15 in the first and 21 in the second. They summarize research output from the SATREPS Peru project. SATREPS is an international research program sponsored by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). As a SATREPS project on natural disaster mitigation, our 5-year Peru project began in March 2010 with the purpose of enhancing and implementing earthquake and tsunami disaster-mitigation technology in Peru.

The joint research project provides good opportunities for Peruvian and Japanese researchers and engineers to work together exchanging opinions on their common goal of reducing loss from earthquakes and tsunamis. Within the project period, CISMID was designated as a government agency in charge of disaster-mitigation activities. Project outcomes have been introduced in national design codes and in guidelines on earthquake and tsunami risk evaluation in Peru. Our project has drawn great attention among members of Peruvian society. It has attracted hundreds of participants and scores of mass media through public seminars and symposia. We expect the project to be sustained through public awareness and dissemination activities by Peruvian organizations.

We hope this special issue will provide useful information to seismic-prone Asia-Pacific countries, especially Latin America. In closing, we sincerely thank the contributors and reviewers who have done so much to make the articles in this special issue both interesting and valuable.

In the developed countries including Japan, malignant tumor (cancer), heart disease and cerebral apoplexy are major causes of death, but infectious diseases still responsible for high mortality in the developing countries, especially for children less than 5 years of age. World Health Statistics published byWHO indicates a high percentage of mortality from infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, diarrhea, measles, malaria and pneumonia in children of South and Southeast Asian and African countries (World Health Statistics 2014,World Health Organization). Many of these infectious diseases have the potential for borderless transmission and invasion to Japan.

Given this situation, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) introduced Phase I of a program “Founding Research Centers for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases,” running from fiscal 2005 to 2009 and involving 8 Japanese universities and 2 Japanese research centers. The program was established to:

1) Create of a domestic research structure to promote the accumulation of fundamental knowledge about infectious diseases,

2) Set up 13 overseas research collaboration centers in 8 countries at high risk of emerging and reemerging infections, Japanese researchers are stationed at these centers, where they conduct research in partnership with overseas instructors,

3) Develop a network among domestic and overseas research centers,

4) Develop human resources.

The program, supervised by MEXT, and managed by the RIKEN Center of the Research Network for Infectious Diseases (Riken CRNID). Dr. Yoshiyuki Nagai, Program Director (PD), heads CRNID and is organizing the program.

Phase II of the program was set up as the Japan Initiative for the Global Research Network on Infectious Diseases (J-GRID) and was established for fiscal 2010-2014.
(more…)

Following its two special issues on the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster, the Journal of Disaster Research is now publishing this third issue focusing on risk communication.

The earthquake and tsunami killed over 20,000 people, destroyed houses, farmlands, and communities, and led to a large amount of radioactive materials being released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. These materials contaminated the environment and foods and forced almost 160,000 people to be evacuated from the highly contaminated district.

Ruined buildings are now being reconstructed and adversely affected farmland is being decontaminated. The victims remained concerned, however, about their future, especially those exposed to even very low-level radiation.

Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts, a landmark report released by the Chernobyl Forum in 2005, assessed the 20-year impact of the nuclear explosion at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986. One of its important findings was that 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer, mainly in children, had occurred but that except for nine deaths, all of the children recovered and that there was no evidence of any increase in the incidence of leukemia or cancer among affected residents.
Such facts as these are not generally known, however, many health conditions have been erroneously attributed to radiation exposure and myths and misperceptions have persisted about the threat of radiation, resulting in a “paralyzing fatalism” among residents of affected areas.

The Chernobyl report recommends developing new and innovative ways of risk communication to increase knowledge about the actual health effects of radiation and providing accurate information on the incident’s physical and mental health consequences.

Over the last three years, experts in risk communication in Japan have continued working to disseminate scientifically accurate information about radiation. This issue discusses the current status and questions related to the incident.

In 2011, a collaborative project focused on climate and ecosystem change adaptation and resilience studies in Africa (CECAR-Africa) with Ghana as the focal country, was initiated. The goal was to combine climate change and ecosystem change research, and to use that combination as a basis for building an integrated resilience enhancement strategy as a potential model for semi-arid regions across Sub-Saharan Africa.

The Project is being financially supported by the Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS), a collaborative programme of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). CECAR-Africa involves the following leading climate and ecosystems research organizations in Ghana and Japan: The University of Tokyo; Kyoto University; United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS); University of Ghana; Ghana Meteorological Agency; University for Development Studies; and United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNUINRA).

CECAR-Africa has been operating fully since 2012, with a focus on three thematic areas, namely: Forecast and assessment of climate change impact on agro-ecosystems (Agro-ecosystem resilience); Risk assessment of extreme weather hazards and development of adaptive resource management methods (Engineering resilience); and Implementing capacity development programs for local communities and professionals (social institutions-technical capacity development) using the assessment results derived from work on the first two themes.

This special issue presents major outcomes of the Project so far. The articles featured used various techniques and methods such as field surveys, questionnaires, focal group discussions, land use and cover change analysis, and climate downscaled modelling to investigate the impacts of climate and ecosystem changes on river flows and agriculture, and to assess the local capacity for coping with floods, droughts and disasters, and for enhancing the resilience of farming communities.

We are happy to be able to publish this special issue just in time for an international conference on CECAR-Africa in Tamale, Ghana, on 6-7 August, 2014. It is hoped that the shared research outcomes will facilitate discussions on the project research themes and interactions and exchange of ideas among academics, professionals, and government officials on the way forward for the CECARAfrica Project.

We find it only appropriate to conclude by thanking the authors and reviewers of the articles, and by acknowledging, with gratitude, the local knowledge and other bits and pieces of information contributed by the many anonymous farmers and other people of northern Ghana.

The 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake, hereafter referred to as Tohoku-Oki earthquake, occurring off northeastern Japan’s Pacific coast on March 11, 2011 had a moment magnitude of 9.0 and generated a tsunami responsible for most of the deaths of the event’s 19,000 victims. Identifying scientifically what happened before, on, and after March 11 is one starting point for a discussion on how to reduce casualties and mitigate the impact of such natural disasters. The 14 papers in this special issue cover incidents related to pre-, co- and post-seismic phenomena, including volcanoes. Three papers discuss why and how such a large quake occurred. Three more papers go into the implications of short- and long-term crustal deformations seen in northeastern Japan. Four papers detail short- and long-term phenomena leading to the Tohoku-Oki quake. Two papers discuss real-time tsunami forecasting based on off-shore and on-shore geodetic, seismic and tsunami observation data. The last two papers explore the effects of the 2011 temblor on volcanic phenomena.

The magnitude 9.0 produced in the 2011 event is the largest historically recorded in Japan and may not necessarily have been anticipated beforehand, and the generation mechanism behind such a gigantic occurrence is not yet completely understood. Even so, preparations should be made for such earthquakes in other parts of Japan and in other countries. The Nankai trough is an example of areas that require our attention.

A national project for observation and study for earthquake prediction is now being integrated into a new program, Earthquake and Volcano Hazards Observation and Research Program (2014-2019). Studies presented in this special issue are also being supported in part by this program.

We are certain that readers will find that this special issue will contribute much to our understanding of gigantic earthquakes and at least some of the measure to be taken in preparation for such natural phenomena. Finally, we extend our sincere thanks to all of the contributors and reviewers involved with these articles.

Tokyo Metropolitan Earthquake and Nankai Trough Earthquakes predicted to hit Japan in the near future makes it urgent that the impact of urban earthquake disasters be reduced by every means possible.

To promote research to this end, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan launched a Special Project for Reducing Vulnerability for UrbanMega Earthquake Disasters in 2012 as a five-year R&D effort embracing three academic disciplines – earth and physical sciences, structural engineering, and social sciences. This project in turn consists of three subprojects – Subproject on the earthquake hazard mechanism and risk evaluation of southern Kanto region, Subproject to develop rapid damage assessment and recovery technology of urban function, and Subproject to develop resilient society improving disaster management competence.

This special issue features findings and achievements from this last subproject, whose goal is to enhance society’s resilience based on the experiences and lessons of the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster that crippled Kobe, the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster that prostrated Japan’s northeastern Pacific coast and other such disasters.

Concretely speaking, by integrating the wisdom of disaster management researchers nationwide and collaborating with other subprojects, this subproject proposes disseminating disaster information technologies and training methodologies to build up disaster preparedness. This, in turn, is aided by improving disaster literacy and competence among both the general public and disaster management personnel.

Focusing on the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, where two-thirds of Japan’s population and three-fourths of the nation’s total assets are concentrated, Web-based disaster information management and dissemination services are being proposed and examined for effectiveness through demonstration experiments and social implementation.

In this issue of JDR, we are introducing 11 papers and reports from researchers involved in this subproject to present initial interim findings and progress during the first half of this five-year effort. In doing so, the authors and editors of this issue gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support of MEXT in these studies.

Increasing numbers of devastating weather events such as Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and tornadoes in the US and Japan are suggesting that nature’s destructive power is having a growing worldwide impact.

These events follow the occurrence of such disasters as Cyclone Sidr in 2007 in Bangladesh and Cyclone Nargis in 2008 in Myanmar, especially in the alarming numbers of deaths and injuries and concomitant property loss.

The wind engineering community has taken the initiative in globally promoting wind hazard research and education over the last several decades and is continuing to devote its efforts and energy to producing and providing techniques in advanced wind hazard mitigation to developing countries prone to typhoons and cyclones.

Mitigating the effects of wind hazards on a global plane has thus become a top priority because most of the economic and other loss due globally to natural disasters is caused by extreme wind and water events. Calamitous tropical cyclones generally bring with them high waves, storm surges, heavy rain, flooding, landslides and lightning.

This ongoing process underscores the pressing need to pool expertise and cooperation in reducing such loss. The loss of lives and related financial loss and waste due to such disasters is continuing to increase significantly. It has therefore been hypothesized that global warming and climate change are potentially exacerbating such scenarios as the intensity of weather-related disasters grows.

This special issue of the Journal of Disaster Research focusing on wind-induced disasters is thus both meaningful and timely. As the Guest Editor, I am most pleased to have this opportunity to present and share the latest in knowledge, information and resources on wind damage mitigation to all those working in mitigation efforts and to society as a whole.

Finally, I extend our sincere thanks to all of the contributors and reviewers involved with these articles.

We have been conducting seismic hazard assessment for Japan under the guidance of the Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion of Japan since the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu Earthquake, and have made National Seismic Hazard Maps for Japan for use in estimating strong ground motion caused by future earthquakes.

This special issue reviews the results of these efforts. Such work includes the development of seismic hazard assessment methodology for Japan, highly accurate prediction techniques for strong seismic ground motion and modeling underground structures for evaluating strong ground motion. Related research on utilization initiatives and risk assessment based on hazard information has also been conducted. An open Web system – the Japan Seismic Hazard Information Station (J-SHIS) – has even been developed to provide information interactively.

The 2011 Mw9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake was the largest such event recorded in the history of Japan. This megathrust earthquake was not considered in National Seismic Hazard Maps for Japan. But efforts toward revising seismic hazard assessment in Japan are progressing based on lessons learned from this earthquake.

Hazard assessment is currently being reviewed in relation to the large earthquakes anticipated to occur in the near future based in the Sagami Trough and the Nankai Trough in the waters of offshore Japan. This assessment, which considers earthquakes larger than those assumed to have occurred in the past, is being reviewed as of this writing.

In light of these pressing circumstances, studies are now being implemented to evaluate the long-period ground motion accompanying these large earthquakes.

The knowledge that has been cultivated in Japan in terms of seismic hazard assessment has reached a high level, and it is important to expand such knowledge both internationally and domestically. This is just one of the reasons that efforts here in Japan are being made to help improve the level of seismic hazard assessment in the Asian region and throughout the entire world.

It is expected that this special issue will help contribute to the further development of strong ground motion prediction and seismic hazard assessment now and in the future.

Finally, I extend our sincere thanks to all of the contributors and reviewers involved with these articles.

The Journal of Disaster Research (JDR), published bimonthly in English since 2006 as a Japan-based academic journal, promotes multidisciplinary research on disaster reduction due to all hazards – natural, unintended and intended.

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster on March 11, 2011, we have worked as our duty to provide a forum for all stakeholders and researchers in the world to describe what happened scientifically in terms of human and property damage and in subsequent social and economic damage by this unprecedented occurrence, including the incident involving Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

As one contribution, JDR is publishing special annual issues for the next five years on the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster – with NO PAGE CHARGES TO CONTRIBUTORS. This effort began in 2012.

The purpose of these special issues is to record, communicate and share the lessons learned from this disaster.

In our second special issue, 16 papers were submitted and we are proud to introduce 11 papers touching on different aspects of the Great East Japan Earthquake disaster. We are sure you will find these papers interesting and informative.

We also look forward to receiving contributions for the third special issue, which will be published in the summer of 2014.

This special issue is sponsored by following companies. We deeply appreciate their cooperation.

Silver sponsor: Esri Japan Corporation

Bronze sponsor: CALBEE, Inc.

Bronze sponsor: NIKKEN SEKKEI

An unprecedented M9.0 earthquake occurring at 14:46 local time on March 11, 2011, off of northeast Japan’s Pacific Ocean generated a huge tsunami which had a run-up of over 40 m at the highest point and nearly 20,000 lives were lost. The tsunami demonstrated the need to drastically readdress current tsunami countermeasures.

“Guidebook for Tsunami Preparedness in Local Hazard Mitigation Planning” published prior to the March 11 tsunami had already estimated, as one of the cases of tsunami assumptions, that the tsunami could be generated by the largest earthquake near off the Sanriku Coast predicted by the recent seismology. The seismotectonics had predicted that off the Sanriku Coast consisted of three independent blocks, which could conceivably cause an M8.6 earthquake at the largest. However, three blocks were not independent and they moved continuously to yield an earthquake of M9.0.

The Guidebook had recommended a combination of three approaches for handling such a tsunami; Construction of defense structures, Tsunami-resilient town development, and Disaster prevention systems – defense structures were not expected to completely prevent every tsunami but only reduce its effect. Caissons forming part of Kamaishi Port’s tsunami breakwaters and registered in Guinness World Records, were overturned but reduced the tsunami height from 14 m outside the port to 8 m inside. Many coastal dikes were also destroyed, even though three surfaces – fore slope, top slope, and rear slope – had been protected using concrete and other means. Such phenomena pinpoint the importance of toe protection against erosion.

Since 2004, tsunami inundation hazard maps have been distributed to communities in Japan as an aid to public education and as part of the country’s nationwide disaster prevention system. Unexpectedly, these maps had a negative effect in many places where residents living outside inundation areas mentioned on the hazard maps believed they were safe under all condition. Many did not in fact keep track of the actual tsunami rising in front of their very eyes and not evacuate, thus losing their lives.

The tsunami hitting the coast of the Fukushima Prefecture had a run-up height almost double that designed in defense plans. The Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plants of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) located on ground 4.8 m above sea level were immerged and a concurrent electric system failure led to total plant shutdown.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster itself has become well known worldwide. The effects of the tsunami, however, are less so, despite damage such as fires, railroad destruction and drifting ships caused by the tsunami. With the nuclear incident overshadowing such effects, we are concerned that these results might be overlooked.

To better prepare against potential future tsunami disasters, we must understand clearly what sort and how such diverse damage has been generated by the 2011 tsunami. This special issue focuses on the various types of tsunami-induced damages, emphasizing the valuable data and modeling obtained from field investigations in the tsunami-devastated areas. It will be more than worth publication if this special issue contributes in whatever way to furthering tsunami disaster research.

Finally, we extend our sincere thanks to all of the contributors and reviewers involved with these articles.

(written by Nobuo Shuto and Tomoyuki Takahashi)

“Dual use” can be defined as potential use of science and technology for destructive purpose as well as for constructive purposes. While the history of the dual use is long (such as, debate on atomic energy), after the anthrax incident in the wake of the terrorist attack of World Trade Center in New York on September 2001, “dual use” issue surfaced as the matter of “biosecurity.” The debate on biosecurity was further ignited by the US National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity’s recommendation on the publication of experiments dealing with the host range expansion of the avian influenza virus H5N1.

The present special issue deals with the “dual use” mainly from the “biosecurity” view point, including the bioweapon and its history, biosecurity negotiation in the Biological Weapon Convention, regulatory framework of use of pathogens and its implementation, ethical issues, education of the “dual use” issues for life scientists, the feasibility of direct application of the published data to the dual use and the recent progress of synthetic biology and its biosecurity implication.

The present guest editor wishes that these articles will stimulate debate on “dual use” issues in various branches of science and technology, as he realizes that “dual use” issue is becoming prominent not only in microbiological researches but also in other activities, such as, IT, robotics, neuroscience, psychology, economics, etc. He extends his sincere thanks to all of the contributors and reviewers involved with these articles.