Does “Adversity Strengthen the Foundation?” Change in Japanese Residents’Place Attachment after Typhoon No. 19 in 2019

Abstract

We examined the possibility that residents who experience severe natural disasters such as typhoons can subsequently develop increased positive feelings toward the place where they live. Accordingly, we surveyed Japanese residents about their place attachment before and after Typhoon No. 19 in 2019 by comparing the perceptions of mandatory evacuation-order area residents with those of other area residents. The data were collected from 11,799 residents from all over Japan via a web-based questionnaire survey conducted in November 2019, immediately after the October 2019 typhoon. The results indicated that place attachment improved significantly among residents of underpopulated mandatory evacuation-order areas. We hypothesized that social capital unique to rural areas was a factor in this improvement, but the exact causal relationship has not been identified. The next task is to test this hypothesis, which may contribute to the development of a disaster resilience theory that is specific to rural areas.