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Paper short abstract

This study shifts attention to the role of storytelling in fostering public engagement for the revitalisation of devastated areas by presenting two case studies of community-led kataribe initiatives: the Tomioka Fukushima kataribe and RE: Project tsūshin of the Sendai Cultural Foundation, both established following Tōhoku triple disaster.

Paper long abstract

This study examines the role of the kataribe (storyteller-witness), who has historically been central to Japan's post-disaster reconstruction planning. Kataribe are voluntarily recruited through bottom-up initiatives led by local groups and associations. Their activities serve several purposes: (1) revitalising the area through events, workshops, and exhibitions on local history to encourage regional tourism; (2) contributing to the creation of archival repositories based on testimonial accounts; and (3) performing pedagogical and educational functions in the field of disaster risk reduction (DRR).

However, limited research has addressed the relationship between kataribe and the psychological therapeutic outcomes of their roles as storytellers and guides for listeners at disaster sites or memorials. My previous research has examined storytelling as a form of Narrative Therapy (NT), which exposes kataribe to habituation and may reduce dysfunctional emotional responses. The activities of these witnesses can contribute to the reworking of traumatic memories associated with disasters and promote the coherent reconstruction of personal experiences, potentially leading to post-traumatic growth (PTG).

This study shifts attention to the role of storytelling in fostering public engagement for the revitalisation of devastated areas. To illustrate this, two case studies of community-led kataribe initiatives are presented: the Tomioka Fukushima kataribe and RE: Project tsūshin of the Sendai Cultural Foundation, both established following the triple disaster in Tōhoku, Japan. Horizontal cooperation (suihei kyōryoku) among public and private institutions is supported by gojo (mutual aid) and kyōjo (volunteering, charitable activity; Cavaliere and Otani, 2026), with storytelling serving as an exemplary practice of these principles.

This research adopts an interdisciplinary approach, integrating social disaster studies and social psychology, to investigate kataribe activities. The analysis highlights not only the therapeutic outcomes for individual mental well-being achieved through the verbalisation of psychological trauma via storytelling, but also aims to demonstrate how these testimonial activities constitute a form of community empowerment. By fostering new awareness of their value and role within the local community, kataribe activities facilitate the restoration of both survivors' fragmented identities and the broader community.

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Paper short abstract

Ethnographic findings show persistent gendered disaster biases in Japan’s recent earthquakes. This paper examines how women navigate vulnerabilities through kokoro no kea and spiritual care as culturally grounded, non-pathologizing support when formal services fall short.

Paper long abstract

Disasters generate long-term psychosocial impacts that often remain invisible, particularly among populations facing intersecting vulnerabilities. In Japan, despite three decades of gender mainstreaming in disaster policy, responses to the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes and the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake reveal persistent gender biases. In Kumamoto, a disaster culture focused primarily on hydrogeological hazards left communities underprepared for seismic events, compounding women’s risks within a deeply conservative gender environment. In the Noto peninsula—a region with persistent demographic decline and entrenched traditional norms—more women evacuated than men, and conditions in evacuation shelters were especially harsh. Age-related needs, gendered expectations, and rigid community hierarchies intensified women’s emotional and practical burdens during displacement and throughout long-term recovery. Drawing on ethnographic research (2016–2020 and 2024), this paper examines how women navigate these intersecting vulnerabilities through culturally rooted, non-pathologizing forms of support, particularly kokoro no kea (emotional care) and spiritual care offered by religious organizations, and rinshō shūkyōshi (clinical religious specialists). Findings show that participants regarded kokoro no kea and related community-based practices as more attuned to their lived realities than formal psychological and mental health services, which are undermined by social stigma and often medicalize emotional distress. By situating kokoro no kea within Japan’s gendered disaster landscape, the paper argues that spiritual and emotional care functions both as a vital coping mechanism and as a subtle form of resistance, enabling women to redefine wellbeing amid structural vulnerability.

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This research examines how kamishibai, once tied to state propaganda and considered obsolete, has re-emerged as a medium for communicating disaster experiences in Japan, mediating individual testimony and visual storytelling while raising concerns about the instrumentalization of trauma.

Paper long abstract

Narrating traumatic events presents profound challenges, yet such experiences also generate innovative forms of storytelling that convey lived realities and communicate moral or educational messages. Kamishibai, a traditional Japanese form of visual storytelling that pairs illustrated panels with oral narration, exemplifies this dynamic. Popular as street entertainment in the early twentieth century, it later served as a vehicle for wartime propaganda before declining in the 1960s. In recent decades, however, kamishibai has experienced a notable revival, particularly as a means of recounting personal experiences of disaster. This research asks how a medium once tied to state propaganda and presumed nearly obsolete has re-emerged as a compelling tool for communicating disaster experiences in contemporary Japan. Drawing on anthropology, history, and material culture studies, we examine kamishibai’s unique features that make it suited to post-disaster storytelling: its embodied and performative qualities, its tactile and visual immediacy, and its grounding in communal memory practices. We argue that the renewed appeal of kamishibai stems not only from its accessibility and emotional resonance but also from its capacity to mediate between individual testimony and collective memory in the aftermath of trauma. At the same time, the medium’s historical entanglement with shifting political and educational agendas underscores the need to remain attentive to the risks of instrumentalizing traumatic narratives. Through this lens, kamishibai emerges as a significant and ambivalent cultural form within Japan’s evolving landscape of disaster storytelling.

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Paper short abstract

The increase in hydrogeological risks is challenging current disaster preparedness. Comparing Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan, this study examines how non-dominant groups perceive and adapt to these hazards, questioning the limits of vulnerability discourses on age, gender, and nationality.

Paper long abstract

Climate change is intensifying hydrogeological risks worldwide, including heavy rainfall, typhoons, and flooding. Unlike large-scale seismic events, these hazards are often seasonal, partially predictable, and characterised by cumulative, recurrent impacts that blur the boundary between everyday disruption and disaster. However, disaster preparedness frameworks have traditionally prioritised low-frequency, high-impact events, leaving significant gaps in understanding how populations perceive and respond to increasingly frequent hydrogeological threats. Following the 2021 (Europe) and 2020s (Kyushu, Japan) extreme flooding experiences, this research addresses this gap by examining risk perception across three contrasting national contexts—Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan—selected for their differing levels of exposure, preparedness, and public awareness. The study employs a comparative qualitative approach, focusing on non-dominant narratives, with a particular emphasis on stories of place belonging, mobility constraints, and the experiences of foreign residents.

By showcasing these perspectives, the research explores how everyday challenges and adaptive capacities are translated into emergency situations across distinct social and cultural settings. The findings reveal context-specific strategies of coping and preparedness, while also highlighting shared structural constraints. The discussion contributes to debates on disaster risk reduction by questioning the analytical limits of the prevailing “vulnerability discourse” and proposing a more nuanced understanding of risk, agency, and resilience under conditions of escalating climatic uncertainty.

Keywords: disaster preparedness, vulnerability discourses, hydrogeological hazards