Source: The Society for Risk
Analysis' RISK newsletter,
Second Quarter 1995
In addition to planning five sessions for the 1995 SRA Annual Meeting
to be held in Hawaii, the Japan Section of the Society for Risk
Analysis has undertaken several other activities.
Response to "Hanshin" Earthquake. Officers of the section who were living in the Kansai area when the earthquake occurred last January 17 suggested that the section make a proposal on how to deal with a wide range of risk issues from comprehensive and interdisciplinary viewpoints. In response, the Japan Section is setting up a communication forum titled "Risk Discussion Forum on 'Hanshin' Earthquake Disaster" and is requesting its members to send in their opinions and ideas, which the section will report in its newsletter and journal.
The section will also address the earthquake disaster at a September 8 symposium in Osaka with the support of the Japan Society of Liability Insurance's Osaka Section. SRA member Atsushi Takao of Kobe University's Department of Business Administration is helping to organize this event.
Several SRA-Japan Section members have been involved with the many scientific societies in the field of disaster prevention which did initial research and data collection after the earthquake. The section itself has taken up natural or urban disaster risk issues as essential research themes, such as risks in rescue activities; emergency risk control; pre-risk evaluation and philosophy of control, including earthquake insurance and investment in disaster prevention; and ways to influence restoration projects with risk philosophy.
Product Liability Symposium. The section's spring symposium on "Risk Communication in Product Liability" will be held June 23 at Tokyo University to discuss problems which exist in product liability and to identify possible solutions.
Japan enacted a product liability law in June 1994 which will be in force this August and has attracted the attention of the country's industries, consumers, lawyers, insurance companies, and government. The new law responds to recent consumer requests for product safety and the right to know risk information on product quality, safety, and liability, says SRA-Japan Section President Saburo Ikeda of Tsukuba University. The law introduces Japanese society to the concept of "the strict liability of the producer," which is in accordance with European and United States systems. However, Japan's industrial sector fears being in a conflict-oriented society where consumers are apt to seek resolution in court rather than in mutual communication. Contact: Saburo Ikeda, Tsukuba, telephone (81) 2 98 53 5380, fax (81) 2 98 55 3849, e-mail ikeda@shako.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp. [Note: Old e-mail address; do not use. (posted 3/21/05)]