40th Sogo Bosai Seminar

We are pleased to announce the 40th Sogo Bosai Seminar on Sep 25 as follows. We look forward to your kind participation.
 

Date: 25 Sep, 2020
Time: 16:00-17:30
 

Lecture type: ONLINE via zoom
Registration form : https://forms.gle/hiy64YQe3HMfQSAq6
The Zoom address will be sent to your e-mail address on Sep 24.
 
Guest Lecturer: Dr. LIN Lexin  (DPRI,JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow)
Lecture title: Communicating Natech Risks to the Public: A study of public risk perception, risk information disclosure and trust in Japan
 

Abstract: Past experiences have suggested that the more people are aware of potential disaster risks, the more prepared they are likely to be, and the less likely that they will be taken by surprise when disasters occur. In practice, governments or industries, who own such risk information, are often reluctant to disclose it to the public, worrying that it might cause panic or fall into the wrong hands thus endanger the society. However, the danger of being over-protective with regard to risk information is that secrecy can lead to a false illusion of safety, which can be disastrous while facing a fast-developing disaster. This study draws upon the Japanese context, where citizens are threatened by natural hazard-triggered technological accidents (Natech), but are not provided with sufficient and timely information to prepare and/ or respond. Two rounds of surveys were conducted with households located in the Osaka Bay and Tokyo Bay areas. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with representatives from governments and communities in various areas of Japan. By investigating the current status of Natech risk information disclosure, understanding government’s and public’s risk perception and their mutual trust in Natech risk management, this study seeks to identify: 1) citizens’ demands for risk information when faced with threats; 2) the amount of sensitive risk information that government is willing to disclose, in order to help citizens to prepare for, and respond to, potential threats.
 
Short bio: Dr. Lexin Lin is a JSPS Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI), Kyoto University. Dr. Lin completed her PhD at the Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, Sweden. She holds two Masters’ degrees: an MA in Mass Communication from Fudan University, China, and an MSc in Strategic Public Relations from Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
Rooted in real-world disaster risk management systems and their practice, Dr. Lin’s research integrates the fields of risk communication and risk assessment, and actively involves stakeholders with multi-disciplinary backgrounds from the whole-of-government and all-of-society, to reduce disaster risks and increase the resilience of our societies.