earticle

영어

The number of depopulated areas in Japan, where the population is declining and aging in 63,237 small communities. Of these, 23,372 are depopulated areas, accounting for 32.2% of all depopulated areas. Of the depopulated areas, 2,744 are likely to have zero population in the future. A major challenge in disaster response is that the members of local disaster management organization, who are registered with those who assist in the evacuation of the frail elderly and disabled in the depopulated areas, are also aging. The number of evacuation assistants in those areas will decrease drastically as those who support evacuation will be needed to evacuate. The solution lies in reviewing social capital and removing the normalcy bias toward people with disabilities and bias of against disasters. Our survey of disaster management personnel at facilities for persons with disabilities in depopulated areas revealed that disabilities are able to evacuate independently depending on their level of disability. It also cleared that they can play various roles in evacuation centers. However, we also found that they do not interact with local people on a daily basis, thus do not provide social capital in the event of a disaster.