On March 31st, six students from the seminar taught by Professor Kazunari Togawa of the Faculty of Policy and Information Studies held a "Play and Learn Disaster Prevention Karuta" event at Hanashi Dim Sum Tsugihashi in Ichikawa City.
In 2022, students from the Togawa and Kazuyuki Yoshiba seminars of the Faculty of Policy and Information Studies collaborated with Kamagaya City and the Kamagaya Management Lab to create the "Karuta Cards to Protect Everyone - Connect through Community Disaster Prevention through Talk." This card game was developed as a tool for people of all ages to think about disaster prevention while playing, focusing on the local issue of "improving and raising awareness of self-help in disaster prevention."
Togawa's seminar has previously held events using disaster prevention karuta in various local communities, but after receiving feedback from residents in the area around the university saying, "We would like to think together about local disaster prevention issues in the event of a disaster," students worked with local residents to hold a trial event.
In addition, on March 12, we interviewed the Ichikawa City Regional Disaster Prevention Division and created a disaster prevention quiz based on the knowledge and information we gained about the disaster prevention awareness of parents and children in the city.
On the day of the trial session, 27 people, including elementary and junior high school students, participated. Comments included, "When imagining a disaster, we realize that deeper communication with the people around us is necessary, and that simple things like everyday greetings become important," and "The illustrated karuta cards made learning fun."
As I belong to the local fire brigade, I wanted many people to think about disaster prevention, so I handed out flyers and put up posters, but it was difficult to attract people. Through the experience session, many people were able to think about disaster prevention as a "personal matter" and learn from various perspectives whether they can imagine evacuation in the event of a disaster. After graduating, I would like to become a firefighter and hold regular events that encourage people to think about disaster prevention on a daily basis.
Daiki Sato, 4th year student in the School of Policy and Information Studies (graduated from Ichikawa Subaru High School)
From my interviews at the city hall, I felt that karuta alone was not enough, so I also created a quiz. I was nervous about hosting the event as the organizer, but I was relieved to see the participants having fun and getting excited about the quiz and karuta. I have always felt that people in this area have a positive attitude toward disaster prevention, so I was happy that we were able to hold the experience event. I would like to continue to expand my circle of contact with local people through disaster prevention events where people can learn while having fun.
Tsuyoshi Kitami, 4th year student in the School of Policy and Information Studies (graduated from Toke High School)