Analysis of Disaster-Measures Based on Survey of People's Consciousness of Earthquake Disaster Prevention in the Fukui Area, Central Japan.

It has passed more than half century after the 1948 Great Fukui Earthquake Disaster. Today, Fukui residents are in the period of forgetting the earthquake disaster. In order to assess people's consciousness of earthquake disaster prevention, we made a questionnaire survey to about 400 people living in the Fukui area. Questions were given with respect to goods , residences, and social activities necessary to prevent and mitigate earthquake damages. The survey made it clear that : 1. Generally, the goods such as flash lights and batteries are prepared. The practices such as shut-down of gas , electricity, and water in their residences can be easily done . Fixture and stabilization of indoor tall furnitures are insufficient. The preparedness relating to social activities is insufficient. People are not eager to participate in community events for disaster-prevention training , and not so many fami- lies have discussed about how they have to do at earthquakes. Expensive or time-consuming measures are not accepted actively , such as to insure against earthquakes and to read manuals for disaster prevention. Measures familiar and necessary in daily life，are fairly achieved . 2. Among all age groups, teenagers and sixties are most worried about earthquake and prepare relatively earnestly for disasters. Small , but significant differences in preparedness and perceptions to earthquake disasters are recognized between residents living in the damaged areas by Great Fukui Earthquake and residents living in non-damaged areas . The degree of preparedness of disaster prevention and the worry about earthquake disasters partly depend on the past experience of big earthquakes . 3. School education for disaster prevention might affect the young people's consciousness . 4. Preparedness by students living in rental accommodations is not enough. This fact indicates that some measures prepared by the renters themselves are necessary. Based on these findings , we make a proposal to prevent earthquake disasters as follow: preparedness for prevention of earthquake disasters should be done as ordinary practices in daily lives , not in a special program. People should have many chances to take education for disaster prevention. These are important especially in the period of forgetting past earthquakes

Statistical Analysis of Distances of Regional and Intra−urban Migration with Respect to Inhabitants of Fukui City, Central Japan

People living in a city sometimes move to other places in the same city and occasionally move to other cities. The distances and frequencies of regional and intra-urban migration may have relations to their genders and ages. Is there any difference among migration types (regional or intra-urban) and gender groups? What kind of statistical formula can clearly describe the migration distances exhibited by age groups? What kinds of variables are involved in the formula? In this paper, these relations are analyzed statistically. Migration data for four years (1998-2001) described in the residential notifications were obtained from Fukui City Municipal Office. The statistical analysis gives us the following remarks : (1) migration distances by male migrants are relatively longer than those of female migrants with respect to all age groups. Younger migrants move much longer distances than older migrants. (2) There are fluctuations in the relation between migration distances and ages. (3) The modes of fluctuation are different between the in- and out-migrations and the intra-urban migration. (4) This analysis reconfirms that "gravity effect" (the product of population size and distance decay) explains the migration distances very well. Its explanatory ability is much higher than the other factors of "random effect" (all migrations occur randomly), "distance decay effectl", and "population-size effect." The explanatory ability of "random effect" seems to be lowest. (5) As for the regional-migration by young men, "gravity effect" explains the distances not very well, but "random effect" explains the distances relatively well. (6) The male migration distances are affected by both "random effect" and "population-size effect" more significantly than the female migration distances