Relative Preference for Living in a Safer Place from Natural Disasters: A Case Study at Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

While it would be desirable to encourage people to live in places that are safer from natural disasters to minimize casualties and property damage, few studies have focused on people’s relative preference for living in such places. The present study has sought to clarify the extent to which Tokyo residents consider safety from natural disaster to be more important than other factors relevant to the choice of residential location, as well as what personal attributes may be correlated with this perception. An online survey was conducted to collect 1554 valid responses from residents in the 23 city wards of Tokyo, Japan, and statistical analysis (a chi-square test and multivariable logistic regression analysis) was then applied to the collected responses. The results demonstrated that, on average, 45.1% of the respondents considered that “safety from natural disasters” was relatively important among twelve such factors related to the selection of a suitable residential location. It was also found that showing a hazard map to Tokyo residents or educating them to take more interest in their health and the surrounding natural environment could be effective to increase the number of people preferring to live in safer places.