Historical Consideration on the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and Analysis of Reconstruction/Disaster Prevention Issues in the Age of Depopulation and Aging:

Abstract

In Sep. 6, 2019 the 37 symposium of Japan Association for Urban Sociology at Toyo University was held. There were two reports in the symposium: (1) about long-term reconstruction process of the Great Hanhin-Awaji Earthquake happened in 1995, (2) about reconstruction/disaster prevention issues in urban disaster in the age of depopulation and aging. The aim of this paper is to explain about previous researches and theoretical concerns on these two reports. One of the key perspectives is considering urban disaster issues from the point of long-term reconstruction process. Another is considering today’s reconstruction/disaster prevention issues in relation to macro-level social change. In result it emphasizes the importance of legacy of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake studies and setting hypotheses of the macro models for future research about social process of urban disaster.