Disaster Policy and Education Changes over 15 Years in Japan.

During periods before and after the beginning of the new century, Japan has experienced many natural disasters, including the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Lessons have been learned from past disasters to reduce future disasters. Based on these lessons, a common framework needs to be devised for comparative study of disaster cases to extract common wisdom to help reduce future disasters. This article reviews changes that have been made in disaster policy and education in Japan since the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and also global changes in disaster reduction through activities of the United Nations, based on white papers published by the Japanese central government, 1995–2010. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]