In the year 2021, the Journal of Disaster Research (JDR) had two memorable events: Professor MURAKAMI Suminao, one of the founders of the Journal, resigned as the editor-in-chief, and in February the JDR marked its hundredth issue, counting from Vol.1 No.1. These events gave us, the next generation of the editorial board members, the resolve to reinvent the JDR for its leap forward into the next stage.

We have accomplished the following two projects this year.

Establishment of MURAKAMI Suminao Award for Disaster Research and the JDR annual awards

To acknowledge Professor MURAKAMI’s significant contributions to the JDR and disaster research in general, we rename the JDR Award to the MURAKAMI Suminao Award for Disaster Research. While we present this award to the person who has made the most significant contribution to disaster research as a whole, we hereby establish three more specific JDR annual awards: the JDR Award for the Most Cited Paper, the JDR Award for the Most Downloaded Article, and the JDR Award for the Most Contributory Reviewer.

Applying the Creative Commons license

The JDR introduced the Creative Commons license in August 2021, thereby becoming a fully open-access journal conforming to the international standard. This project makes all articles in the JDR easier to reuse and cite in academic activities.

Now the JDR is widely known not only in Japan but also all across Asia, and its readership is spreading through North America and Europe. We will continue to strive for the further development of the JDR as an international journal dedicated to comprehensive disaster research.