We are very pleased to publish this special issue, dedicated to NIED Frontier Research on Science and Technology for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience 2022. There are four papers, two reviews, and one note in this issue.

In the last year of the NIED’s fourth mid/long term plan period, which began in 2016, natural disasters have occurred every year, including earthquake disasters such as the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake (M7.3) and the 2018 Iburi, Hokkaido earthquake (M7.1). Rainfall disasters include the heavy rainfall in northern Kyushu in July 2017, southwestern Japan in July 2018, northern Kyushu in August 2019, Kanto and Tohoku in October 2019, and Kyushu in July 2020. In the summer of 2022, the heavy rainfall and extreme weather continued over Japan.

The first three papers and one note contain hazard and risk information. Dohi et al. present the development of Japan Tsunami Hazard Information Station (J-THIS), Cui et al. present a study of the estimation of damage based on analysis of SNS Information, Nakamura provides avalanche risk information, and Ise et al. note information linkage by the Shared Information Platform for Disaster Management (SIP4D). Horiuchi et al. review the contribution of the E-Defence shaking table. This special issue also includes two social science works. Nagata et al. present tsunami disaster risk reduction education programs, and Yamazaki-Honda reviews promoting coherence among disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and sustainable development for disaster resilience.

In the first half of the 21st century, a mega disaster such as the Nankai Trough earthquake is expected to occur. Extreme climatic events are also becoming more frequent: typhoons, floods, heavy rains and snows, landslides, and heat waves. We hope this issue provides information useful to all readers who study natural disasters.