Local Governance and School Disaster Education

Abstract

Governance of education sector, especially the board of education, plays important roles for promotion of school disaster education. In Japan, education governance is considered in prefectures and municipalities. This chapter highlights (1) to introduce the overview of education governance and administration in Japan and (2) to discuss and conclude the direction of governance in local level. This chapter reviewed the cases of Hyogo Prefecture and Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, which are disaster-affected areas. In Japanese system, standardized education materials and programs can be provided because of governance of the board of education of prefectures. In other words, municipality governments have difficulty to express originality in their disaster education if they follow the direction of prefecture governments. This chapter concludes municipality governments need to develop their own concept of disaster education and its implementation system with collaboration of resource persons/organization like NGOS and universities.