At the ceremony In November 2019, IRIDeS launched the new Earthquake Disaster Prevention for Urban Areas (OYO Corporation) Endowed Research Division. This new division is headed by Prof. Shinji Toda (concurrently working at the Disaster Science Division) and includes Research Associates Yoko Yoshimi and Kimie Norimatsu. The new Division aims at studying major inland earthquakes in urban areas and proposing realistic disaster risk reduction measures.&...

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Disaster Medical Science DivisionProfessor Eiichi N. KodamaInfectious diseases as a disaster Most people probably think of earthquakes and tsunamis when they hear the word “disaster.” However, “infectious diseases” wherein viruses and germs that enter the human body multiply and cause sickness can also be viewed as a disaster. For example, some infectious diseases are highly lethal, such as the Ebola virus disease that caused enormous damage in Africa and other places, and some types o...

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Natural disaster has many aspects to consider, and it is important that researchers from various specialized fields cooperate to conduct disaster studies. As the prerequisites and techniques vary on the basis of the field of specialization, however, it is not easy to conduct interdisciplinary research, particularly in the case of research that integrates both humanities and sciences.   Since 2017, IRIDeS Assoc. Prof. Yuichi Ebina who is specialized in modern history ...

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2019 is the last year of the Heisei period (in the Japanese calendar). Exactly 50 years ago, in 1969, humankind landed on the moon for the first time through the Apollo space program. Those days were the peak of confidence in science, and it was thought that in 50 years human beings would certainly be living on the moon and earthquakes and disasters would be predicted as a matter of course. As you can see, the result is that we are reminded each year how natural phenomena are profoundly beyo...

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On March 11, 2019, it has been 8 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. As one of its missions, IRIDeS has been contributing to disaster recovery, with researchers from various fields conducting research in recovery as well as being involved in practical recovery activities. Now that the first stage of many reconstruction projects has been completed and the landscape of the affected areas has undergone major changes, engineering, medical, and social science researchers were asked to pro...

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