The Implications of the Great Hanshin Earthquake in the Advanced Civilization

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

I did continuous research in Takatori district in Kobe. The role and functions of local communities in earthquake rescue, shelter administration and reconstruction were focused in the former three years. I considered the various phenomena from the viewpoint of "civil society and risk consciousness" in the last year.In these investigations I could summarize five points.1 The earthquake damage was the severest in the inner-city areas, where the social poverty had been accumulated.2 Various kinds of metropolitan disaster occurred but the damages were not so heavy because the time of the occurrence was before sunrise.3 Kobe city's urban planning had been famous of the success of business administration. But the earthquake revealed its disaster measures were very poor. It implies the failure of the urban development attained by the business success and the end of the modern era as such.4 The sufferers made great efforts to reconstruct their lives. In that process many volunteer groups, NPO and NGO supported sufferers and advanced their activities for constructing new civil society.5 The contemporary Japan is confronted with many problems produced by a "risk society".