ALSA 2025 meeting

The development and issues of legal responses in the prevention of disasters and initial/emergency response and recovery phases after disasters in Japan will be reported based on the progress mainly over the 30 years since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, followed by many subsequent earthquakes such as the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in 2024. The main themes to be discussed include disaster condolence payments (disaster-related deaths), publicly funded demolition of damaged houses, livelihood reconstruction assistance programs for disaster victims, and disaster loan reduction and exemption programs. In addition, this paper will also examine the recently proposed and practiced disaster case management (a system in which related professionals and institutions work closely with disaster victims to provide necessary support to them by grasping their individual disaster and living conditions and formulating a plan that combines various support measures accordingly) and disaster response governance (a mechanism to discipline the various actors involved in disaster response, such as the national government, prefectures, municipalities, commercial enterprises, and third sector organizations, for the benefit of disaster victims). This paper concludes that the legal response to disasters is and should be shifted from the traditional application-based approach, where the legal relief procedures for various disaster victims are left to the parties themselves to apply for relief, to a more flexible approach, where each disaster victim is required to apply for relief on his/her own. This paper will also examine issues by comparing legal responses to disasters in Asia and other regions.