Building resilience: The role of women in faith-based disaster response to the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes

Disaster response has been recently shifting toward a more equitable disaster management that provides specific response to needs of women and vulnerable groups of the society. However, when the Kumamoto prefecture was hit by two subsequent strong earthquakes in April 2016, official emergency and disaster management were still unable to provide the expected needs-based response. Drawing upon qualitative data (2016~2018) of religious-based post-disaster relief and support activities performed by women of Sōka Gakkai and GLA (God Light Association), this study shows that the persistent gender blindness within Japanese institutional post-seismic intervention measures intensifies women’s vulnerability, while the moral economy shaping an efficient post-disaster management of religious organizations capitalizes women’s capacity to transform a condition of vulnerability into a source of resilience. Women mobilize their networks and resources, and apply emergency strategies beyond the sponsoring religious organization, thus proving their capacity in disaster response while strengthening resilience. Ordinary women of Sōka Gakkai and GLA played a pivotal role in Kumamoto in helping those affected to respond and recover, as well as providing assistance to official agencies, thus enabling vulnerability reduction strategies while also nurturing a disaster resilient environment at the local level. Even conservative religious groups such as Sōka Gakkai become source of successful gender-sensitive responsive activities where women’s subaltern agency combines both the needs-based and the equality right-based views. Such findings highlight the need to develop official procedures encompassing more adaptive and inclusive models of disaster management to harness women’s capacities and faith-based resilience that exist within and across communities.