Disaster Prevention and Intergenerational Justice: A Questionnaire Survey for Sustainable Disaster Management Policy(in Japanese)

Managing disaster risks with low probability and high consequences is one of the big challenges for the Japanese disaster management policy. In this paper, a questionnaire survey on disaster management policy for sustainable disaster management was conducted from the perspective of intergenerational justice. The principal questions were as follows. (1) How many years later do you think large-scale earthquake prevention or flood control projects be undertaken? (2) Should either the current or the future generations cover a cost of that project? (3) To what extent should the national government support disaster control measures in rural areas? (4) What kind of land use regulation do you prefer? (5) To what extent should government be responsible for the disaster management of local communities and individuals? The primary conclusions of this analysis are as follows. Sex, income, and existence of descendants definitely affect the preferences of disaster management policy. Women are generally risk averse and like passing the cost of disaster control to future generations. People with higher income prefer disaster management projects that take longer to establish. They also prefer to pass more costs on to the future generations. The preferences of people who have descendants are also risk averse, but do not like passing the cost of disaster control to future generations. Those who are optimistic about the Japanese economic situation and large-scale disaster risks prefer disaster management projects that take longer to establish and like to pass its costs to future generations.