Public anxiety about risks: Investigation of the structure and influential approach to them

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Nationwide surveys measured the public’s anxiety toward a variety of hazards in Japan. A stratified, two-step random sampling method was used to generate representative samples of the Japanese public. A multivariate statistics and a consequent analysis of variance revealed that people were most concerned about hazards that highly loaded on a “global crises of environment” factor, followed by a “major cause of death” hazards. Well-known disasters and accidents were of low concern. The results also revealed that public’s concern about hazards reduced when they had guessed the number of deaths by each hazard. The results of the post-2011 Tohoku earthquake survey revealed a decrease in public anxiety about various hazards excepting nuclear plant accidents and earthquakes. The great disaster of 2011 made the Japanese public less cautious.