Creation of a Disaster Prevention Education System

In a conventional disaster prevention education course, students generally learn how people were affected in previous disasters, and perform disaster drills. Their motives to participate in such programs are their own anxiety about a possible disaster and sympathy for victims. It is, so to speak, education that appeals to their emotions. Due to these characteristics, conventional disaster prevention education can only be carried out in disaster-affected areas and tends to decline in effectiveness when several decades have elapsed since the event and the memory of the suffering endured has grown dimmer. Moreover, students who take the conventional course tend to assume a passive attitude in relation to disasters. The author argues that a new educational program that appeals to the intellectual side of students by presenting knowledge on disaster prevention in systematic form would be a more effective approach. The new disaster prevention education program is outlined in this paper. It will enable students to acquire a strong awareness of the importance of disaster preventionIn a conventional disaster prevention education course, students generally learn how people were affected in previous disasters, and perform disaster drills. Their motives to participate in such programs are their own anxiety about a possible disaster and sympathy for victims. It is, so to speak, education that appeals to their emotions. Due to these characteristics, conventional disaster prevention education can only be carried out in disaster-affected areas and tends to decline in effectiveness when several decades have elapsed since the event and the memory of the suffering endured has grown dimmer. Moreover, students who take the conventional course tend to assume a passive attitude in relation to disasters. The author argues that a new educational program that appeals to the intellectual side of students by presenting knowledge on disaster prevention in systematic form would be a more effective approach. The new disaster prevention education program is outlined in this paper. It will enable students to acquire a strong awareness of the importance of disaster preventio