Disaster Studies in Japan

This volume is a critical interrogation of the concept, meaning and experience of disaster in 21st-century Japan. Throughout the chapters, a central theme and guiding theoretical perspective is the recognition of the human element in disasters. This phenomenological perspective shapes our analysis of such occurrences as junctures where hazards intersect with ulti-level governance, political preparedness, individual responses, and the contextual social, cultural, structural, environmental, and transnational dynamics within affected populations. The volume also addresses the mediation of disaster in public culture as a measure of the human capacity to contain disasters through an exercise of disambiguation and framing that reveals the social construction of the event. To this end, here we will introduce the main keywords related to disaster studies in Japan, discussing them within their contextual significance. Keywords: sociology of disaster, Japan, vulnerability, resilience.