The direct impetus for the establishment of the Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage was the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of January 17, 1995, which caused severe damaged to several cultural heritage sites. Director Yoshitomi explains the leadup to the Center’s establishment as follows.
“In society, activities to preserve cultural assets and old townscapes continue, but in the event of a disaster, there is a risk of major damage. The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake brought into sharp focus the importance of efforts to preserve cultural properties, which deals in an integrated manner with the preservation of the value of cultural properties and the safety of and disaster prevention measures for buildings and townscapes. Kyoto, where Ritsumeikan is located, is an ancient city with many historic shrines, temples, and townscapes, and protecting these cultural heritage site from disasters and maintaining them for a posterity is a social issue that hits close to home. In August 2003, the Research Center for Disaster Mitigation of Urban Cultural Heritage, the predecessor of today’s Institute, was established under the philosophy of pursuing disaster prevention and conservation of cultural heritage as a new academic field called cultural heritage disaster mitigation studies and utilizing the findings from this field for the benefit of society.
Since then, we have expanded upon our activities while actively obtaining external funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology by way of the 21st Century COE Program, the Academic Frontier Project, the Global COE Program, and other funding programs. The research center was reorganized into the Institute of Disaster Mitigation for Urban Cultural Heritage in April 2013, and altogether it has been active for over 20 years.

So, what does cultural heritage disaster mitigation studies, which forms the core of the Center’s research activities, entail? According to Professor Yoshitomi, it is a "a comprehensive discipline that links the study of the preservation and utilization of cultural heritage and historical cities and with the fields of disaster studies and disaster prevention.”

Historic buildings and townscapes are not displayed in museums like works of art, but are places where people live and work. As natural disasters become more severe, more countermeasures than ever before are required to preserve townscapes, and the needs of the people living in these areas are also changing with the times. In addition to improving disaster prevention performance in terms of hard infrastructure, there are many issues that need to be resolved from the perspective of urban planning and systems. Furthermore, there is a need to archive maps and historical artifacts to prepare for the risk of their loss.”

As Deputy Director Muranaka explains: "The objective of the Institute is to help solve social issues by building an academic framework that transcends the boundaries of the humanities and sciences through the joint efforts of researchers in a diverse array of fields related to cultural heritage disaster prevention, including disaster science, civil engineering, architecture, information science, policy science, history, and geography.”
The Institute was established as a center for the creation and practical application of the completely new discipline of cultural heritage disaster mitigation studies. Its activities have expanded over the years, and it has come to serve as a network hub for the exchange of numerous research projects and personnel.

Three research subcommittees form the pillars of the Institute’s research activities. One of these, the Historical and Cultural City Temporal and Spatial Data Infrastructure Research Subcommittee, is conducting research that utilizes technologies such as sensing, visualization, and analysis to collect data on the distribution of cultural heritage sites in historic cities, old maps, and records of past disasters in an effort to assess disaster risk as it pertains to cultural heritage.
This work includes the creation of memory maps to highlight and visualize local residents' experiences with disasters. Deputy Director Muranaka emphasizes the importance of this research by saying, "Individual memories and experiences are qualitative information, and they are important data that can be used to think about memories of disasters and local values as well as the transmission thereof.”

In the Disaster Prevention Technologies for Historic and Cultural Cities Research Subcommittee, researchers are studying the structural characteristics of traditional buildings and how to extend their service lives via earthquake-resistant design and reinforcement. As Director Yoshitomi explains, "Modern methods of earthquake resistance do not always match up with older buildings, and some buildings end up falling apart from where they were reinforced. Therefore, we also endeavor to evaluate the effectiveness of designs for disaster prevention established by our ancestors and propose new disaster prevention systems based on this." The group also conducts disaster prevention technology research on a wide range of topics, including the observation and prediction of the ground environment of cities and cultural properties and the development of networks to share information on fire outbreaks using residential fire alarms.

The Disaster Mitigation Design of Historical and Cultural Cities Research Group studies disaster mitigation design and community design to apply the findings of the other two research groups in actual historical and cultural cities. This group has conducted numerous studies and raised proposals on urban disaster prevention planning, disaster prevention policies, and community consensus-building methods that match the characteristics and needs of inherited local environments and communities.
For example, one such study is the use of gaming simulation methods for risk communication in which local residents share information on disaster risks. The group also developed an educational disaster prevention game in which participants experience disasters and the post-disaster response in a virtual world by modeling the results of surveys and estimates of the damage caused by disasters. The group had people actually play this game in Thailand and other countries and are currently analyzing the results.

According to Director Yoshitomi, one feature of cultural heritage disaster mitigation studies is that the boundary between research and practice is blurred. The goal is to move back and forth between research and practice, thus generating results that contribute to society.

One such example is the establishment of a task force on the areas affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake that occurred on January 1, 2024 to survey geoenvironmental disasters and building damage in order to ascertain the current situation. Going forward, the Institute plans to continue to provide long-term support for reconstruction and community development based on the data it collects. In some cases, local governments contract the Institute to formulate district disaster prevention plans for Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings," which local governments designate to preserve and maintain historical townscapes and landscapes. Some of the Institute’s members are also involved in disaster management planning for historical and cultural cities in countries like Nepal and Kosovo, and as this shows, the sites where researchers are practically applying their findings are expanding around the world.

In addition to conducting research, the Institute is also unique in its focus on education and human resources development. It has offered courses and published textbooks on topics such as cultural heritage conservation and succession, the history of urban disasters, and disaster mitigation planning for cultural heritage. The Institute operates the Cultural Heritage Disaster Mitigation Studies Education Program to facilitate the enrollment of graduate students and working practitioners and grant them certificates.
This is due to the fact that although cultural heritage disaster prevention is a field for which there is a growing social demand, there are still few experts in the field because it is a new discipline. In discussing the need to focus on training personnel, Director Yoshitomi says, "It is important to teach professional knowledge to practitioners and to ensure that of cultural heritage disaster prevention practices take root in society, even if just a little bit.”

One of the Institute's unique features is that it is actively engaged in the training of professional human resources, both domestically and internationally. Since the days of the Center's predecessor, the International Training Course has been implemented by inviting practitioners involved in cultural heritage disaster prevention from around the world to Japan. As the world's only research center for cultural heritage disaster prevention, the Institute has focused its attention since its early years on disaster prevention in historical and cultural cities around the world.
The program is certified as the UNESCO Chair on Cultural Heritage and Risk Management, as part of the UNESCO initiative aimed at promoting the international exchange of knowledge and international cooperation based on research findings. About 15 people participate in the program each year, and the program has produced a total of more than 200 graduates to date. The program features practical education appropriate for training practitioners. In addition to lectures on specialized topics, it also provides opportunities for students to share their own country's issues related to cultural heritage disaster prevention and to hold workshops to propose initiatives to solve them. The Institute is also increasing its international presence in terms of human resources development. The Philippine National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is scheduled to visit the Institute in August 2024 to learn about its Cultural Heritage Disaster Mitigation Studies Education Program with the goal of launching a similar program in the Philippines.

One initiative that balances education with community service is the Children’s Map Contest for Community Safety. The Institute has held this contest every year since 2007 to increase elementary school students’ interest in community safety and security. Regarding the objective of this contest, Deputy Director Muranaka explains: “The preservation of cultural heritage is the job of people. So, this contest is an initiative to make children, as the future conservators of cultural heritage, more aware of the need to protect their own communities.” Recognizing the importance of this effort, he continued: “We are happy to see that the adults are also helping children to create these maps, which is a great way to get even more people interested in cultural heritage disaster prevention. We also head into the community to give classes to those people who are unsure about how to make maps. What’s more, we have received support for this initiative from a wide range of companies in a wide range of industries, and I feel that the contest has become a way for us to connect the Institute with the local community and the wider world.”

The Institute has long focused on disseminating information by means such as by publishing the "Cultural Heritage Disaster Prevention Handbook," which provides disaster prevention guidelines and useful knowledge for formulating countermeasures for practitioners in local governments that own cultural properties. Going forward, the Institute plans to consider ways to disseminate information that will further strengthen its ties with local communities and the world.

“Naturally, cultural heritage disaster mitigation studies is beneficial to society, but there are still many unexplored topics, so it is essential that we further develop it as an academic field. We would like to increase the number of opportunities for actual practice while strengthening our network with communities that are home to cultural properties and historical townscapes, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, which is involved in the preservation of these areas, and society at large, including sites overseas. In doing this, we want more people to know about our findings and the importance of cultural heritage disaster mitigation studies," says Director Yoshitomi enthusiastically.

The Institute is also strengthening its efforts to foster researchers, and it has established a research support system for young researchers which it has been operating since AY2023 to encourage the participation of young researchers in academic society meetings and international conferences. In addition, to invigorate internal communication, Deputy Director Muranaka says the Institute has increased opportunities for face-to-face conversations. “Casual chitchat-like interactions between researchers may seem inefficient at first glance, but they actually are indispensable as the basis for successfully conducting research. People are vital when it comes to cultural heritage disaster mitigation studies. We would like to create an environment that maximizes synergies by further developing the strengths of the Institute, which has always kept the barrier between the humanities and sciences low," he explains.

During the interview, Director Yoshitomi said something that left a lasting impression: "Societies and social systems that preserve cultural heritage tend to be flexible and inclusive.” Old buildings that become cultural assets may be inferior to newer buildings in terms of performance, but they are irreplaceable in that they carry the weight of history that has been passed down through culture and people's thoughts and feelings. According to Director Yoshitomi, “A society that understands and protects these values is a society that is prosperous and livable. I believe that there is a way to keep everyone happy that ensures safety and maintains cultural values." We look forward to the future of this Institute, which will continue exploring cultural heritage disaster mitigation in a way that will lead to the enrichment of the people living in the region.