Journal of Natural Disaster Science

EXAMPLES OF CHANGE IN THE TYPES OF DISASTERS EXPERIENCED IN MODERN JAPAN

Shoji FUJII
Director, Fujii Laboratory for Geological Environment, 447 Imaizumi Toyama-shi 939, Japan

(Received 12 October 1993 and in revised form 12, January 1994)

Abstract

Disasters occur only when humans or human society and a natural phenomenon come into contact. No severe natural phenomena bring about disasters by themselves.

The types of disasters experienced in Japan have changed with time. When a defense against one type of disaster has been established, another unexpected form often occurs thereafter. Changes in the ways in which human societies live have changed over time and created conditions that bring about new types of disasters.

It is not unusual that changes in society brings about changes in the types of disasters. Although we can not avoid new types of disasters, it is possible to decrease the destruction done by disasters by acting on information obtained from detailed, continuous studies of the natural phenomena.

Two rules apply to the change in the form of disasters.

A new type of disaster occurs during the process of the recovery when man breaks the balance of nature. Similar scales of natural phenomena do not necessarily cause disasters. The deciding factor is the existing state of the human society involved.

Key words

evolution of disaster, evolution of human society, balance of nature