Key factors on migration assuming disaster risk of a megathrust earthquake: A case study in the Pacific coastal area of Japan

Seismologists anticipate the occurrence of a massive earthquake with a hypocenter near Japan's Pacific coast within decades. This study was conducted in October 2015 among 6000 subjects residing in Kochi and Kanagawa Prefectures in Japan, and it investigated ways that residents of the coastal areas perceive the relative safety of urban versus rural areas and the effects of such views on people's desire to relocate to a non-coastal area. This study revealed that the evaluation of safety and resilience to the areas were different and that the extent to which the evaluation affects migration for disaster prevention is extremely small.