Proposal of Disaster Prevention Learning in Consideration

Miura, S. et al.

Paper:

Proposal of Disaster Prevention Learning in Consideration ofComprehensiveness Based on Analysis of the New Courses of

Study in Disaster

Shinya Miura∗,†, Haruo Hayashi∗, Etsuko Koda∗, Tomohiro Naganuma∗∗,

Naohiro Fujikawa∗∗, Manabu Sasaki∗∗, Naomi Kobori∗∗, and Nakako Oyanagi∗∗

∗National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED)

3-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0006, Japan†Correxponding author, E-mail: [email protected]

∗∗Xtone Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

[Received April 9, 2021; accepted July 26, 2021]

In the New Courses of Study revised in March 2017,

the contents of safety education, including disas-

ter prevention, were significantly enhanced compared

with the previous Courses of Study (2008). This can be

attributed to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

and an increase in the frequency of subsequent natural

disasters, as well as changes in the education curricu-

lum stipulated by the Courses of Study, such as the

introduction of active learning. Associated with this

change, in the field of education, contents that conform

to the curriculum of each subject are required. In

this research, we first focus on how the contents of the

Courses of Study related to disaster prevention have

changed in recent years, and discuss what drove the

change. In addition, we classify and analyze, in terms

of elementary schools, the system of the educational

contents related to disaster prevention included in the

New Courses of Study. By visualizing the contents of

our classification and analysis, we indicate the scope

of disaster prevention covered by the New Courses of

Study in the field of disaster prevention. Subsequently,

we propose ways to manage the scope of disaster pre-

vention in disaster prevention learning in considera-

tion of the comprehensiveness to address the problem.

Keywords: courses of study, disaster prevention learn-

ing, curriculum, text mining

1. Introduction

Japan witnessed frequent disasters in 2019 such as

the Yamagata Offshore Earthquake, heavy rains in

Kagoshima and Saga, and Typhoons Faxai, Hagibis, and

Bualoi. In particular, the three typhoons that occurred be-

tween early September and late October (Typhoon Faxai

struck the Kanto area on September 9, Typhoon Hagibis

hit Izu Peninsula on October 12, causing massive damage

in a wide area, and Typhoon Bualoi that brought heavy

rain from Chiba to Fukushima Prefectures on October 25),

revealed the limits of Japan’s disaster response capabil-

ity. Specifically, Typhoon Faxai was accompanied by se-

vere wind that hit the Tokyo metropolitan area and caused

power outage in Chiba Prefecture, which took a long time

to restore. Meanwhile, Typhoon Hagibis caused extensive

damage to a broad area, including Nagano, Fukushima,

and Miyagi Prefectures. Although Typhoon Bualoi did

not hit the Japanese archipelago, it caused widespread

damage to Chiba and Fukushima Prefectures, which were

already devastated by Typhoons Faxai and Hagibis. These

three typhoons, especially Typhoon Hagibis, broke the

dykes of Class A rivers, calling attention to the limits of

disaster prevention measures by a civil engineering ap-

proach, in which Japan had invested since World War II.

The ongoing disasters exhausted the administrative staff

in charge of disaster response. Since the disasters oc-

curred at a time when it was difficult for volunteering

students to gather, support from volunteers was limited.

These three disasters posed a very serious threat to the

Japanese society.

Issues such as these cannot be solved solely through

a conventional civil engineering approach. In terms of

evacuation, for example, at the time of the disaster caused

by heavy rains in Kagoshima in July (In Kagoshima and

Miyazaki Prefectures, about 1.1 million people were or-

dered to evacuate on July 3–4, but only about 6,300 people

actually moved to shelters. Meanwhile, there were some

people who moved to shelters although they did not actu-

ally need to evacuate), even the “Evacuation information

issued by municipalities (alert levels)” presented by the

Disaster Management, Cabinet Office could not solve the

problem. Evacuation and sheltering are aimed at ensur-

ing public safety during such disasters. It is imperative to

acquire information literacy and the ability to act with an

understanding that moving to a shelter is not the only way

to curtail the impact of disasters. Accordingly, it is neces-

sary to provide a program that allows students to learn and

acquire knowledge on disaster prevention in the curricu-

lum of school education (a total of 12 years of elementary,

1046 Journal of Disaster Research Vol.16 No.7, 2021

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Study in Disaster

lower secondary, and upper secondary schools).

In March 2017, the Ministry of Education, Culture,

Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) revised the

Courses of Study for kindergarten, elementary, and lower

secondary schools, and a year later, in March 2018, re-

vised the Courses of Study for upper secondary schools.

With regard to “Education on Safety Including Disas-

ter Prevention (Cross-Curricular Educational Contents In-

cluding Subjects on Modern Issues)” in the Courses of

Study, the MEXT created an overview table with excerpts

from the main contents of each subject related to the qual-

ities and abilities to be developed. A table was published

as the appendix of the General Provisions of Explanation

of Courses of Study for Elementary and Lower Secondary

Schools (pp. 152-162) [1].

The objective of this study is to quantitatively and qual-

itatively analyze the contents of “Education on Safety

Including Disaster Prevention” of the New Courses of

Study, systematize and visualize the contents, thereby pre-

senting the scope of disaster prevention covered in the

field of disaster prevention. It also proposes disaster pre-

vention learning in consideration of the management of

the scope in disaster prevention learning and comprehen-

siveness to address related issues.

Previous studies on the Courses of Study on disaster

prevention education include Shiroshita and Kawata [2]

and Kishida et al. [3]. Shiroshita and Kawata [2] at-

tempted to empirically clarify the reasons as to why dis-

aster prevention education has not been institutionally in-

troduced in compulsory education in Japan. They focused

on educational reform after World War II, in which the

current compulsory education system was completed. In

order to elucidate the causes, they focused on the edu-

cational system, in particular the Courses of Study, and

explained the process of its establishment and changes.

Kishida et al. [3] added an analysis of the Courses of

Study of 2008 to Shiroshita and Kawata [2]. They further

analyzed the contents of the Disaster Prevention Educa-

tion Challenge Plan1 to determine “what kind of educa-

tion is actually provided in the field” and summarized the

tendency. Future challenges of this research include “cre-

ating a learning criteria table and a standard table based

on the survey results, specifically, expanding the behavior

chart of elementary and lower secondary school students

to create a chart in consideration of other disasters, sea-

sons, weather, importance, and the like.” It also includes

“planning to create a learning criteria table and a stan-

dard table in consideration of the child’s developmental

stage and regional characteristics, and to consider learn-

ing methods, required time, and tools for the learning cri-

teria and the standard” (p. 99) [3]. However, as far as we

can see, there has been no research on this subject.

1. The Disaster Prevention Education Challenge Plan has been imple-mented since 2001 by the Cabinet Office as an effort to support disasterprevention education.

2. Changes in Courses of Study

Shiroshita and Kawata [2] provided an overview of the

changes in the Courses of Study after the war (1947–

1998) by first conducting a morphological analysis of how

disaster prevention education has been organized, and an-

alyzed the frequency of the appearance of terms related

to disaster prevention. Their research has indicated that

(1) in social studies in the early postwar period when the

reform was carried out in cooperation with GHQ, disas-

ter prevention education was by and large organized and

there was a unit related to disaster prevention. (2) How-

ever, the social studies subject, which was introduced for

the first time in the postwar period, caused confusion in

the field of education. Therefore, the content was re-

viewed with the aim of avoiding unnecessary duplication

with other subjects, and in that process, the unit on disas-

ter prevention education was eliminated. Meanwhile the

content on disaster prevention was introduced in science.

(3) “There was an increasingly strong criticism that ‘em-

piricism,’ which constitutes one educational unit based on

the life experiences of pupils, typically as in social stud-

ies and science after the war, was the cause of a decline

in academic performance. On account of this criticism,

Japan had to significantly amend its existing educational

policy. Consequently, the management of disaster pre-

vention education decreased further along with the shift

to the unit structure of systemism (Table 1). In particular,

the management of disaster prevention education in the

Guidelines of 1977 and 1989 is limited” (p. 174) [2]. The

slump in disaster prevention education was not considered

a major issue, partly because no major natural disaster oc-

curred between Typhoon Vera in 1959 and the Southern

Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake (the Great Hanshin-Awaji

Earthquake) in 1995 (Fig. 1). For about 30 years from the

Hayato Ikeda Cabinet’s “National Income Doubling Plan”

in 1960, the year after Typhoon Vera struck, to the peak of

the “economic bubble” in the early 1990s, Japan had not

been affected by major natural disasters, and its economy

continued to grow (Fig. 1).

However, owing to the subsequent occurrence of the

earthquake in Southern Hyogo Prefecture (the Great

Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake), it was considered that “inter-

est in disaster prevention education had increased, which

generated interest in disaster prevention education again.

In view of the change process since the establishment

of disaster prevention education, the current curriculum,

that is, the systemism-based unit structure, is still unsuit-

able for disaster prevention education, under the current

situation in which the program in current schools can-

not be evaluated as sufficient.” This is because disas-

ter prevention covers a wide range of fields and is not

compatible with the system in systemism. Shiroshita and

Kawata analyzed that the “examination of the change pro-

cess of the education system after the war indicates that

the discrepancy between the ‘comprehensiveness’ of dis-

aster prevention and the ‘systematicity’ of the Courses

of Study has made the inclusion of disaster prevention

education very challenging in compulsory education in

Journal of Disaster Research Vol.16 No.7, 2021 1047

Miura, S. et al.

Table 1. Curricula of systemism and empiricism.

Advantages DisadvantagesEmergence

in Japanese education

Systemism (subjectcurriculum: system-aticity)

Cultural heritage can be learned system-atically.Configuration is simple and easy to eval-uate.It has a long tradition and teachers areused to it.

Focusing on textbooks, it tends to be morememorization-oriented than comprehension.By focusing too much on infusion of knowl-edge, it is easy to forget the development ofsociality and the growth of creativity.

From the Meiji period to theprewar period, Modernizationof educational contentsEmphasis on the foundationand basis

Empiricism (em-pirical curriculum:comprehensiveness)

Learning becomes active and effective,because it is driven by the interest andproblems of the learner.It is closely connected to the place oflife.Voluntary learning develops democraticvalues.

By focusing excessively on current prob-lems, it is difficult to acquire the cultural sys-tem.Responses to social and cultural changestend to be delayed.It is difficult to properly organize school andcommunity systems.

New education of postwar era(social studies)Living environment studies“New concept of scholasticability”Period for integrated studiesActive learning

Created based on a summary of Takeo Taura, “Introduction to Education,” pp. 158-159, Foundation for the Promotion of The Open Universityof Japan, 1986, https://www.gsis.kumamotou.ac.jp/opencourses/pf/4Block/11/11-hajimeni.html (in Japanese) [accessed May 29, 2020]

person

1945 45 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73 75 77 79 81 83 85 87 89 91 93 95 97 99 11 13 15

year173 5 7 92001

Source: White Paper on Disaster Management 2019.

Fig. 1. Number of deaths and missing persons in natural disasters.

Japan” (p. 174) [2].

Close on the heels of these previous studies, the Great

East Japan Earthquake occurred in March 2011. As for

the “specific teaching contents in order to provide the nec-

essary knowledge at each stage of development and foster

an attitude to take independent actions and a point of view

as a supporter,” the final report (July 2012) of the “Expert

Committee on Disaster Prevention Education and Disaster

Prevention Management in Reaction to Great East Japan

Earthquake,” which was set up by MEXT, indicated the

following direction.

At the elementary school level, lower grade

pupils are capable of taking appropriate actions

such as following instructions from teachers,

parents, and other adults. Middle grade pupils

are capable of learning about the various risks

that occur in the event of a disaster and take

safe actions by themselves. Upper grade pupils

are capable of understanding the risk of a disas-

ter occurring in various scenes of daily life and

take safe actions, as well as to pay attention not

only to their own but also others’ safety.

In light of this report, “Development of Disaster Pre-

vention Education to Nurture ‘Life Skills,’ Reference Ma-

terial for School Disaster Prevention” was published in

March 2013. In addition, “Safety Education at School



Study in Disaster

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1947 1951 1958 1968(1969) 1977 1989 1998 2008 2017

Disaster Disaster

prevention

Natural

disaster

Earthquake Tsunami

Typhoon River Sediment High tide Heavy

snowfall

Volcano Lightning

strike

Tornado

Source: For the Courses of Study from 1947 to 1998, the result of count of morphemes related to disaster prevention in the Courses of

Study of Shiroshita and Kawata [2] were used. For the Courses of Study of 2008 and 2017, the author counted the number of

morphemes using KH Coder.

Fig. 2. Result of count of morphemes related to disaster prevention in the Courses of Study.

to Nurture ‘Life Skills”’ was published six years later in

March, 2019.

From the results of the count of morphemes related to

disaster prevention in the Courses of Study from 2008 to

2018, the Courses of Study of 2018 registered a signifi-

cant increase compared with that of 2008 (Fig. 2). This is

considered to be the result of the experience of the Great

East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, and the cre-

ation of the Courses of Study in consideration of the com-

prehensiveness that is not just systematicity as described

later.

With regard to disaster prevention learning in consid-

eration of comprehensiveness, Shiroshita and Kawata [2]

indicated that “Disaster prevention is a comprehensive

field that crosses existing subjects. The history of the

change in the curriculum so far has proven that the class

not based on systemism is the most suitable time for giv-

ing disaster prevention education in schools. According

to Kawata and Shiroshita [4], having conducted a survey

on efforts of advanced disaster prevention education at

elementary and lower secondary schools, approximately

70% of the schools making advanced efforts provide dis-

aster prevention education using the class time for inte-

grated studies. At present, the opportunity for provid-

ing disaster prevention education in schools exists in the

same manner as in the empirical curriculum after the war

(p. 174) [2]. They also indicated that “the significance of

disaster prevention education in schools shall be widely

questioned by the public in order to prevent disaster pre-

vention education in schools from going down the same

path as it did after the war, and to realize the system-

atic introduction of disaster prevention education.” This

question was also raised in association with the Great East

Japan Earthquake and is still being asked today.

In response, the Office for Planning School Curricu-

lum, School Curriculum Division, Elementary and Sec-

ondary Education Bureau, the MEXT held hearings with

Kaoru Ueda (served at the ministry for five years from

1946), who was involved in the creation of the Courses

of Study (social studies) in 1947 and 1951.2 Regarding

disaster prevention in particular, Ueda pointed out at the

hearings that “the sense of crisis felt in the shock of the

Great East Japan Earthquake has to be maintained in the

future world,” specifically noting that “as for evacuation

drills, for example, what was required in the past was only

slowly moving to a corner of the schoolyard, but now it is

important to conduct drills on the assumption of various

emergencies such as major earthquakes, tsunamis, and

floods. Teachers and children themselves have to make

their own decisions and initiate actions. Accordingly, it

is necessary to consider the educational goal, curriculum,

and evaluation that enable teachers and children to do so.

I suppose that the next Courses of Study will question how

2. Material related hearing to Kaoru Ueda, former president ofTsuru University, https://www.mext.go.jp/b menu/shingi/chousa/shotou/095/shiryo/attach/1335362.htm (in Japanese) [accessed May 29, 2020]


Miura, S. et al.

Source: Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, “Concept of Revision of Courses of Study,”

https://www.mext.go.jp/content/1421692 6.pdf (in Japanese) [accessed May 29, 2020]

Fig. 3. Concept of Revision of the Courses of Study.

educators respond to severe situations of the future. Pro-

crastination is absolutely unacceptable” (underline mine).

Furthermore, Ueda also noted that “it is more important

for the curriculum to ‘pin down the main point’ rather than

to ‘look fine”’ (underline mine). The Courses of Study at

the time when Ueda was involved twice were “thought to

be a ‘tentative draft’ for teachers and a clue to be used for

the teachers to aim for outcomes for each child. Subse-

quently, such thoughts disappeared.”

It is considered that those points were reflected in the

creation of the New Courses of Study, and affected not

only the increase in the number of morphemes related to

disaster prevention in the New Courses of Study but also

its curriculum. This will be examined comprehensively in

the following sections.

3. Analysis of the New Courses of Study

3.1. Outline of the New Courses of Study

The 2017 revision of the Courses of Study was a struc-

tural reform that made it completely different from the

existing ones (refer to [5]) p. 257 and [6] p. 181). The

Courses of Study announced in March 2017 are composed

of three main axes, “what to become capable of” (quali-

ties and abilities aimed to be developed), “what to learn”

(organization of subjects), and “how to learn” (learning

process). Among them, “qualities and abilities” has been

further categorized into three elements, “knowledge and

skills,” “thinking, judgment, expressiveness, and the like,”

and “power towards learning, human ability, and the like”

(Fig. 3). This structure is composed of two nested tri-

angles, and as Honda [6] points out below, “qualities” is

positioned as most important.

What is remarkable in comparison with the

existing Courses of Study is that “qualities and

abilities aimed to be developed” are defined

first, then, in order to achieve this, “subjects”

and “learning process” are required to be as-

sembled at the school field (curriculum man-

agement), and the assembly is expected to be

done “in a way open to society.”

Primarily, education has been defined as be-

ing conducted by mobilizing all of the edu-

cational content (“education curriculum open

to society”) and education method (“learning

that is independent, interactive, and profound”)

in order to develop the required “qualities and

abilities.” This is a large triangle, and “qualities

and abilities” are positioned at the vertex of it.



Study in Disaster

In addition, another triangle is positioned

in the “qualities and abilities” to be formed,

in which the “qualities” of the “power towards

learning, human ability, and the like” were

listed as being superior to the “abilities” of

“knowledge and skills” and “thinking, judg-

ment, expressiveness, and the like.”

Specifically, “qualities” was given maxi-

mum importance to dominate the entire Courses

of Study as the top of the double triangle.

(pp. 181-183, [6])

As pointed out by Mizuhara et al. [5], class manage-

ment in this Courses of Study requires “curriculum man-

agement based on the actual condition of pupils and stu-

dents as essential, and the introduction of active learn-

ing and class evaluation for each unit at key points of

the unit,” which is intended to “foster competencies, that

is, an ability useful outside the school beyond knowledge

acquisition, and generic skills, that is, ‘versatile ability”’

(p. 257) [5].

With regard to disaster prevention, “it is expected to

transform the knowledge and skills acquired in each sub-

ject into versatile competencies through the development

of ‘qualities and abilities required to respond to various

modern challenges in order to realize a rich life and form

a society of the era by overcoming disasters”’ (p. 274) [5],

and “it will become important from now on to make it

clear how each school will respond to the challenges it

faces, and what kind of qualities and abilities of children

are to be developed, as school education goals and the

qualities and abilities of children to be developed, while

focusing on curriculum management. It is also important

that all the teaching staff and community share and re-

spond to the issues and goals” (p. 275) [5]. In this man-

ner, the New Courses of Study calls for “competencies,

that is, an ability useful outside the school beyond knowl-

edge acquisition, and generic skills, that is, ‘versatile abil-

ity’.” The Courses of Study were created with the aim

of harmonizing systemism (systematicity) and empiricism

(comprehensiveness).

3.2. Analysis of the New Courses of Study

Subsequently, what is the structure and system of the

New Courses of Study in the field of disaster preven-

tion, and how do systemism (systematicity) and empiri-

cism (comprehensiveness) harmonize?

As part of contents on disaster safety, “Safety Ed-

ucation at School to Nurture ‘Life Skills”’ intro-

duced in March 2019 describes that, with the aim

of “understanding risk at the time of occurrence

of various disasters, making correct preparations and

appropriate judgement, and taking actions” (underline

mine) (p. 30) [1], it is required to focus on “promotion of

safety education tailored to local characteristics and the

actual conditions of pupils and students through the es-

tablishment of curriculum management” (p. 31) [1], and

includes “a table created with an emphasis on the com-

prehensiveness with excerpts of the main contents from

each subject related to the qualities and abilities to be

developed, with regard to ‘Education on Safety Includ-

ing Disaster Prevention’ in the Courses of Study, as an

appendix to the General Provisions of Explanation of

Courses of Study for Elementary and Lower Secondary

Schools” (pp. 152-153) [1].

In order to understand the system of the contents of the

New Courses of Study for elementary schools in the table

listed in this appendix, we performed text mining using

“KH Coder,” which is a quantitative analysis software for

text-type data, and performed hierarchical cluster analysis

and co-occurrence network analysis. According to the hi-

erarchical cluster analysis and visualization (Fig. 4) of the

combinations of words with similar appearance patterns,

the items from “institution” and “relationship” to “exer-

cise” correspond to “making correct preparations and ap-

propriate judgements, and taking actions” of “Safety Edu-

cation at School to Nurture ‘Life Skills’,” in particular, the

items from “expression” and “judgement” to “exercise”

correspond to “making correct preparations and appropri-

ate judgements, and taking actions,” and the items from

“skills” and “knowledge” to “instruction” correspond to

“understanding risk at the time of occurrence of various

disasters” (Fig. 4).

According to the co-occurrence network analysis

(Fig. 5), which is a network that connects words with sim-

ilar occurrence patterns, that is, words with a strong de-

gree of co-occurrence, it can be roughly understood that

the upper half of the figure corresponds to “making cor-

rect preparations and appropriate judgement, and taking

actions” and the lower half is related to “understanding

risk at the time of occurrence of various disasters.”

In addition, “making correct preparations and appropri-

ate judgement, and taking actions” in the upper half can

be categorized into “correct preparations” (Subgraph 01)

and “appropriate judgement, and taking actions” (Sub-

graphs 02 and 05). Therefore, “correct preparations,”

“appropriate judgement, and taking actions,” and “under-

standing risk at the time of occurrence of various disas-

ters” can be grouped into the following three categories,

“prepare” for disasters, “act,” and “know” the disasters,

respectively, and their contents can be expressed accord-

ingly. The two categories of “prepare for” and “take ac-

tion” were categorized based on the fact that the former

focuses on efforts during normal times before a disaster

occurs, while the latter emphasizes actual decisions and

actions when a disaster has already occurred or is immi-

nent.

As an intermediate item (Table 2) category that bridges

between the three major items (Table 2) category of

“know,” “prepare,” and “act,” which are the analysis re-

sults of this text mining, and the minor items (Table 2)

category in which the contents of the New Courses of

Study are classified, the authors summarized in terms

of disaster prevention such as “learn the disaster princi-

ple” and “learn the regional cooperation” and visualized

(Fig. 6) them in a tree diagram. The authors also visual-

ized, in the form of a table, the outline of the description

contents of the New Courses of Study and what subject in


Miura, S. et al.

Fig. 4. Hierarchical cluster analysis of the New Courses of Study (elementary school).

each grade the contents are learned (Fig. 6, Table 2).

This visualization indicates that “learn the disasters”

accounts for about half of all the disaster prevention learn-

ing with the aim of the three of “learn about the disaster,”

“prepare for the disaster,” and “take actions,” and “pre-

pare for the disaster” and “take actions” account for the

other half. In disaster prevention, which requires com-

prehensiveness, how to realize the “understanding risk at

the time of occurrence of various disasters, making cor-

rect preparations and appropriate judgement, and taking

actions,” which is the target of the disaster prevention of

the New Courses of Study, is an issue. Specifically, how

to link the learning to disaster response in the event of a

disaster and disaster prevention activities in normal times

is an issue.

An overview of the contents of learning of elementary

school indicates that Grade 4 is the stage at which the

overall learning about disaster prevention commences in

science and social studies, which is a very important grade

for disaster prevention learning.

We will now look at this tree diagram (Fig. 6) and the

contents of the learning table (Table 2) for each grade

from the point of view of disaster prevention. The dam-

age of a natural disaster is determined by a hazard and

the disaster prevention capability (exposure and vulnera-

bility) of society. Therefore, it is necessary to learn about

local hazards and the disaster prevention capability of so-

ciety in “learn about the disaster.” The disaster preven-

tion capability of the society depends on what exposure

and vulnerability are like. An analysis of the contents of

learning of the New Courses of Study from this point of

view indicates that fourth graders of elementary school

are expected to learn, in social studies, local hazards by

“understanding that various preparations have been made

for anticipated future disasters (bring together interview

survey results and materials such as maps and chronolog-

ical tables).” Additionally, they are expected to learn dis-

aster prevention capabilities of society by learning about

cooperation between local relevant institutions and coop-

eration with people such as the fire department and the

police. However, differences in exposure owing to pop-

ulation and reduction in damage (reduction in vulnera-

bility) from highly earthquake-resistant housings are not

covered by the learning of the subject. In order to acquire



Study in Disaster

Fig. 5. Co-occurrence network analysis of the New Courses of Study (elementary school).

the knowledge about disaster prevention that is not cov-

ered, it is necessary to prepare curriculum that is covered

so that pupils can learn through the Period for integrated

studies in the “prepare for disaster.” This point has been

highlighted by Shiroshita and Kawata [2]. The Period for

integrated studies is very important for disaster preven-

tion education that requires comprehensiveness, and how

to utilize the topic is the key.

Further, in Grades 4–6 of elementary school, the dura-

tion of classes in each grade totals 1,015 hours. In this

class time, “the Period for integrated studies” represents

70 hours and “class activity” 35 hours, while 105 hours

has been allocated as class time of the empirical curricu-

lum (p. 273) [5]. The hours of empirical curriculum in

consideration of this comprehensiveness is about 10% of

the total. Not all of these 105 hours are allocated to dis-

aster prevention learning, but it is necessary to create a

learning plan that carefully considers how many hours are

required for learning about disaster prevention, which de-

mands comprehensiveness, and how to learn it in relation

to the subject curriculum. In the subsequent section, we

will specifically consider what is necessary for that.

3.3. Discussions from Practice Case of Yamanashi

Prefectural Board of Education

In this section, we will have discussions based on the

practice cases that have been published. The Curriculum

Research Council of the Yamanashi Prefectural Board of

Education3 has been set up for the purpose of researching

and disseminating the outcomes of the research on “de-

vise and improvement of learning teaching and appropri-

ate evaluations” based on the New Courses of Study, and

it disseminates curriculum teaching materials and practice

cases.

We will discuss how “systemism (systematicity)” and

“empiricism (comprehensiveness)” balance out and real-

ize the objectives of the New Courses of Study in practice

cases picking up “water” related to disasters and disas-

ter prevention. Accordingly, we will specifically examine

the contents of “Let’s research water and our daily lives”4

of the Period for integrated studies for fourth graders and

“Work of flowing water”5 of science for fifth graders of

elementary school.

In the science subject of the New Course of Study,

“Where does rainwater go and the state of the ground”

was added in Grade 4 of elementary school, where stu-

dents will learn about natural disasters in connection with

the fifth grade units on “How running water works” and

“Weather changes” and the sixth-grade unit on “Land for-

mation and changes” and “Weather, rivers, and land.” The

goal of the Period for integrated studies for fourth graders

3. Curriculum Research Council of the Yamanashi Prefectural Board of Ed-ucation, https://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/gimukyo/shido/kenkyu/shiryo.html [accessed March 25, 2021]

4. “Let’s research water and our daily lives,” https://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/library documents/1202sougou2.pdf [accessed March 25, 2021]

5. “Work of flowing water,” https://www.pref.yamanashi.jp/library documents/0403rika3.pdf [accessed March 25, 2021]


Miura, S. et al.

Table 2. Contents of learning in each grade of Safety-Related Education Including Disaster Prevention of the New Courses of

Study (Elementary School).

of elementary school, which is taken up in the practical

case of the Yamanashi Prefectural Board of Education

is to “be able to make a presentation focusing on some-

thing he/she wants to share and have a thought on his/her

friends’ presentation.” The flow of the learning starts from

confirming the learning task “let’s share what we have re-

searched about water” (14 hours), followed by setting up

each student’s own task regarding water, researching the

task, and making a presentation on the summary using

the function of the tablet learning software. The presen-

tations are arranged in order so that similar tasks can be

presented together, and, after the presentations, the pupils

interact with each other based on questions and further

interests. When listening to a friend’s presentation, they



Study in Disaster

Fig. 6. Education related to safety including disaster prevention in the New Courses of Study (elementary school).

write down the similarities, surprises, and items for fur-

ther research, and consequently make a presentation on

their thoughts. This is positioned as a developmental

study based on the learning of the unit “Where does rain-

water go and the state of the ground,” which was newly

added to the Grade 4 science course, and is connected

to the Grade 5 science course “How does flowing water

work,” in which students observe disasters from the per-

spective of disaster prevention and mitigation.

The “work of flowing water” (12 hours) of the science

for fifth graders of elementary school focuses on “being

able to relate the work of flowing water to the change of

land and the state of disaster, while expanding the point

of view from the familiar schoolyard → the familiar river

→ the rivers in Japan, and being able to understand the

problem as his/her own matter,” and starts with “the unit is

introduced by comparing changes in the schoolyard due to

weather.” The unit includes “making the pupils aware that


Miura, S. et al.

the meandering flow of water is similar to that of an actual

river, and an experiment of flowing water on a slope in

connection with the topography of Japan studied in social

studies.”

In addition, in order to “scientifically solve the prob-

lems of daily natural events based on the contents of

learning,” the Fuefuki River, a representative river in

Yamanashi Prefecture, is selected through the unit. The

pupils are expected to touch the stones picked up from

the riverside of the Fuefuki River, observe the flow of the

river in practice, and present materials such as videos and

images of the scene of the Fuefuki River after heavy rains.

The pupils are also expected to “actually go to the river at

the end of the unit, and observe it from the point of view of

disaster prevention and disaster mitigation, while check-

ing with the contents of learning.” The practice case of

the Yamanashi Prefectural Board of Education “assumes

a pupil who is interested in disasters (in particular, floods)

that can occur in nearby rivers and measures to cope with

them at the end of the unit” and “were able to get a con-

crete image of the unit plan that matches the actual situa-

tion of the pupils such as what steps to be only required to

be taken to link the learning to the nearby river, from the

model experiment.” Accordingly, the addition of a unit

on “Where does rainwater go and what does the ground

look like?” in the fourth grade of elementary school has

made it possible to conduct a comprehensive study on the

topic of “Let’s communicate what we have learned about

water.” In addition, fifth-grade students can now learn and

think about the role of flowing water through the familiar-

ity of the community and rivers, and how it benefits the

community (land) but also brings disasters.

In addition, the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education6

has prepared a learning menu that includes “Let’s make a

newspaper (disaster prevention newspaper) together” the

following December in Japanese language,7 after the stu-

dents learn how rivers rise due to typhoons, how they were

flooded in the past, and the characteristics of river flood-

ing in Japan, in the lesson “Dealing with River Floods”

during the “Hometown” social studies class8 for fourth

graders of elementary schools in November, and confirm

the importance of obtaining correct information and evac-

uating quickly. In this class, overflowing river and ty-

phoon claw marks were provided as examples of disas-

ters and disaster prevention efforts. It was indicated that

“by making disaster prevention newspapers, students will

be encouraged to pay attention to disasters and prevention

efforts. Furthermore, by investigating and thinking about

what is important to protect yourself through interests and

interviews, you can protect yourself in the event of an

emergency, learn the importance of self-help and mutual

help, even at home. It has been shown that the content

6. Tottori-Type Disaster Prevention Education Guide, https://www.pref.tottori.lg.jp/239259.htm [accessed June 10, 2021]

7. Elementary School Middle Grade 〈4–(10)〉 Japanese “Let’s make a classnewspaper based on what we interviewed” Let’s Make a Newspaper(Disaster Prevention Newspaper) Together, https://www.pref.tottori.lg.jp/secure/924494/4-10.pdf [accessed June 10, 2021]

8. Middle Grade of Elementary School 〈4–(12)〉 Social Studies “Home-town” – The Case of River Flooding, https://www.pref.tottori.lg.jp/secure/924494/4-12.pdf [accessed June 10, 2021]

will lead to educational activities for children, and it is

possible to collaborate between subjects in social studies

and Japanese.

In addition, the Hyogo Prefectural Board of Educa-

tion’s practical case study of the “Fukura Disaster Pre-

vention System Improvement Project,”9 an inquiry project

for fifth-grade elementary school students during their in-

tegrated studies time, shows a linkage diagram (Fig. 7)

of the relationship between the subject and the commu-

nity. In the introduction and problem-solving section of

the integrated learning time, the question was: “Know-

ing that the damage estimates made by cities and prefec-

tures are larger than our own expectations, is there a way

to reduce the damage expected from the Nankai Trough

earthquake in the future?” It can be connected to special

activities (evacuation drills, nature school), moral studies

(life, responsibility, moderate living), and even to “Ac-

quire through Nature School” in cooperation with the Na-

tional Awaji Youth Exchange Center. And the “Let’s think

about the people of Fukura who face nature” is related to

science (typhoons and weather information, clouds and

weather changes) and Japanese (protecting the hometown

in a hundred years), and consists of listening to a talk by a

person who has experienced disaster in Fukura, in coop-

eration with the local community. Finally, “Let’s think of

ways to prevent disasters in our town” is related to social

studies (protecting the environment of the country), and

based on the efforts of the head of the Fukura community,

which has been involved in disaster prevention activities

in the Fukura area for many years, the students are asked

to summarize what they can do to prevent disasters in their

town, and make a proposal to Minami Awaji City in the

form of “Our Ideas for Minimizing Damage.”

This project is a year-round plan for disaster prevention

study that takes into account the integration of all aspects

of the project, with a curriculum that allows students to

learn about disasters, prepare for disasters, and take ac-

tion by learning content that cannot be acquired through

subject study alone.

4. Proposal for Disaster Prevention Learn-

ing in Consideration of Comprehensiveness

that Integrates “Know,” “Prepare,” and

“Take Actions”

We have systematized the contents of learning from

the perspective of school education by analyzing the New

Courses of Study of elementary school, and confirmed the

extent to which the contents necessary for disaster preven-

tion were covered from the point of view of disaster pre-

vention. From practice cases, we considered that the dis-

aster prevention capability (exposure and vulnerability) of

the society was not covered in the learning of the sub-

ject, and that it can be covered in the Period for integrated

9. Integrated Study Time Unit Structure [Relationships with Sub-jects and Cooperation with the Local Community] (Grades 3–6),http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/∼kikaku-bo/sendoutekijissenkenkyuu/1-4sougoutekinagakusyuu.pdf [accessed June 10, 2021]



Study in Disaster

Fig. 7. “Fukura Disaster Prevention System Improvement Project” – Integrated studies –.


Miura, S. et al.

studies. From practice cases, we confirmed that disas-

ter prevention can be learned in a multifaceted and com-

prehensive manner through each subject and grade. This

suggests that the learning of disaster prevention, which

requires comprehensiveness, requires not only learning

what has been learned in the subjects in a cross-sectional

manner simply in the Period for integrated studies or the

like, but also to linking each subject. Specifically, when

learning about disaster prevention, it is important to de-

sign how to integrate the contents of learning of each sub-

ject, which constitutes “know,” “prepare,” and “take ac-

tion,” and how to maximize the effect, and then develop

the class. Furthermore, regarding the topic related to dis-

aster prevention having been set in the light of the local

characteristics of each school, the knowledge about dis-

asters acquired in the learning of subjects is used com-

prehensively in the Period for integrated studies, so that

the problem can be understood “as if it were the pupils’

own affair,” whereby the knowledge can be established.

Accordingly, it is necessary to take this into considera-

tion so that pupils can learn the whole picture of disaster

prevention when learning about prevention in accordance

with the local characteristics of each school. It is conceiv-

able to provide active learning to pupils, which is defined

as “causing pupils to do something and think about what

they are doing” (Introduction) [7], by giving not only the

subject curriculum but also a class that enables them to ac-

quire disaster prevention in accordance with local charac-

teristics through, for example, something requiring com-

prehensiveness such as a disaster prevention drill in coop-

eration with the local community and the school.

Correspondingly, we propose not just disaster preven-

tion learning that is considered from the point of view

of separate curriculum in which the conventional sys-

temism (subject curriculum) and empiricism (empirical

curriculum) conflict with each other, but disaster preven-

tion learning that takes into consideration a comprehen-

siveness in which the subject curriculum is included in

the empirical curriculum, and the empirical curriculum is

included in the subject curriculum concurrently. In order

to realize this, it is important to carefully design the en-

tire curriculum, and it is also necessary for each teacher to

have a certain level of knowledge about disaster preven-

tion.

The final report (July 2012) of the “Expert Committee

on Disaster Prevention Education and Disaster Prevention

Management in Reaction to Great East Japan Earthquake”

indicates the direction for each stage of development, by

mentioning that “based on this reference material, each

school is required to create and implement a specific guid-

ance plan in accordance with the stage of development of

pupils and students and the location status of the school”

(p. 5) [8].

As we have seen in the practical examples in the pre-

vious section, in elementary schools, homeroom teachers

are responsible for almost all subjects, so it is possible to

achieve learning that integrates cooperation with the lo-

cal community by relating integrated studies to subject

learning and effectively combining local educational re-

sources. In particular, as shown in the practical case study

of the Fukura Elementary School’s “Integrated Studies

Time: Unit Structure (Relationship with Subjects and Co-

operation with the Local Community) (Grades 3–6),” the

nature, topography, life, disasters, and disaster prevention

in the local community are organically linked according

to the developmental stage of each grade in the integrated

study starting from Grade 3. In order to realize this pro-

posal, it is important to have both a systematic curriculum

and a comprehensive approach to disaster prevention, and

it is essential to have a plan for promoting disaster preven-

tion education in elementary schools in cooperation with

the local community.

In addition, it is imperative to have teachers who play

a leading role in each school by cooperating with teach-

ers in each grade and the subject in charge. Accordingly,

the final report describes that “in order for teachers and

staff to acquire a certain level of knowledge and quali-

ties related to disaster prevention, it is also effective for

the national government to implement training for teach-

ers who play a leading role in each region and to provide

training for disaster prevention staff at each school with

those teachers as instructors at local governments and the

like. It is worth noting that it is also effective to incorpo-

rate the opinions of institutions related to disaster preven-

tion and experts into the implementation of the training”

(p. 10) [8]. It is essential to provide training support to

teachers and the like and enrich disaster prevention edu-

cation in each school, and subsequently cooperate with el-

ementary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools.

In the future, for the purpose of proceeding with learn-

ing related to disaster prevention under the New Courses

of Study, in order to balance the integrity (comprehensive-

ness) of “know,” “prepare,” and “take action” in learning

disaster prevention, which requires comprehensiveness,

and individual subject curriculum (knowledge) that sup-

ports comprehensiveness, it is mandatory to promote co-

operation during the training on disaster prevention for

teachers and disaster prevention learning of elementary

school grades as well as lower secondary and upper sec-

ondary schools.

In conclusion, the New Courses of Study has almost

eliminated the situation that Torahiko Terada once feared

as “it is indeed necessary for a country like Japan to

include, in elementary school textbooks, such scientific

common sense related to earthquakes, fires, and wind

and flood damages, as well as common knowledge about

this. This seems to be so obvious that it is almost ‘not

a problem,’ but it seems to be ‘a problem’ from time to

time, for some reason not being implemented in any way”

(p. 215) [9]. In order to grasp the contents of learning

and intentions of the New Courses of Study and to make

it a fulfilling disaster prevention learning, it is critical to

include disaster prevention learning curriculum for ele-

mentary schools that has been designed and planned in

cooperation across grades and subjects.



Study in Disaster

References:[1] Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology

(MEXT), “Safety Education at School to Nurture ‘Life Skills’,”2019 (in Japanese).

[2] H. Shiroshita and Y. Kawata, “Institutional Problems in DisasterEducation in Compulsory Schooling Analyzed from the HistoricalTransition of the Course of Study (Japanese national curriculum),”J. of JSNDS (Japan Society for Natural Disaster Science), Vol.26,No.2, pp. 163-176, 2007 (in Japanese).

[3] S. Kishida, M. Ohara, and K. Meguro, “A basic study on develop-ment of an education curriculum for disaster reduction in a compul-sory education course,” Seisan Kenkyu, Vol.61, No.4, pp. 713-716,2009 (in Japanese).

[4] Y. Kawata and H. Shiroshita, “Approaches and Issues of schooldisaster prevention education observed in contents of ‘Bosai-Koshien’,” Proc. of the 24th Annual Conf. of Japan Society for Nat-ural Disaster Science, 2005 (in Japanese).

[5] K. Mizuhara, F. Takada, H. Endo, and M. Yagi, “History of NationalCurriculum Standards Reform in Japan, new revision: Blueprintof Japanese citizen character formation,” Tohoku University Press,2018 (in Japanese).

[6] Y. Honda, “What has education valued?,” Iwanami Shoten, 2020 (inJapanese).

[7] K. Matsushita, “Deep active-learning,” Keisou Shobou, 2015 (inJapanese).

[8] Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT), “The final report (July 2012) of the ‘Expert Committeeon Disaster Prevention Education and Disaster Prevention Man-agement in Reaction to Great East Japan Earthquake’,” 2012 (inJapanese).

[9] T. Terada, “Kaki no tane,” Iwanami Shoten, 1996 (in Japanese).

Name:Shinya Miura

Affiliation:Principal Research Fellow, National Research

Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Re-

silience (NIED)

Address:3-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0006, Japan

Brief Career:2003- Kawasaki Local Government Research Center

2015- NIED

Selected Publications:• “Participatory Risk Communication Method for Risk Governance Using

Disaster Risk Scenarios,” J. Disaster Res., Vol.3, No.6, pp. 442-456, 2008.

• “311 Informatics: What and How the Media Communicated,” Iwanami

Shoten, 2012.

• “Study on Disaster Prevention Countermeasures and Examples for Local

Governments in Consideration of Regional Characteristics,” J. Disaster

Res., Vol.13, No.1, pp. 172-192, 2018.

Academic Societies & Scientific Organizations:• Japan Society for Disaster Information Studies (JASDIS)

• Japan Sociological Society (JSS)

• Institute of Social Safety Science (ISSS)

Name:Haruo Hayashi

Affiliation:President, National Research Institute for Earth

Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED)


Brief Career:1994-1996 Associate Professor, Disaster Prevention Research Institute

(DPRI), Kyoto University

1996- Professor, DPRI, Kyoto University

2015- President, NIED

Selected Publications:• Kyoto University/NTT Resilience Joint Research Group (H. Hayashi

et al.), “Trial for the Disaster Resilience Society – Come over the Great

East Japan Earthquake Disaster,” Nikkei BP Consulting, Inc., ISBN:

9784901823975, 2012 (in Japanese).

• H. Hayashi et al., “Effective method for disaster prevention, ‘Disaster

Ethnography’ – unrevealed witnesses of Hanshin-Aawaji Great

Earthquake,” Japan Broadcast Publishing Co., Ltd., ISBN:

9784140814055, 2009 (in Japanese).

Academic Societies & Scientific Organizations:• Institute of Social Safety Science (ISSS)

• Japan Society for Natural Disaster Science (JSNDS)

• Japan Emergency Management Association (JEMA)

Name:

Etsuko Koda

Affiliation:National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience

(NIED)


Name:

Tomohiro Naganuma

Affiliation:Xtone Ltd.

Address:5th Floor Aoyama Sunlight Building, 6-5-55 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku,

Tokyo 107-0062, Japan

Name:

Naohiro Fujikawa





Miura, S. et al.

Name:

Manabu Sasaki




Name:

Naomi Kobori




Name:

Nakako Oyanagi





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Proposal of Disaster Prevention Learning in Consideration