ABSTRACT
Japan first received support from abroad after a major disaster following the Kanto Earthquake of 1923, when more than 50 countries provided support (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan 2014). More recently, after the Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, 44 countries and regions provided support for search-and-rescue operations, as well as medicine and other supplies (Nishikawa 1996). In the aftermath of this disaster, the government took decisive action toward receiving aid from abroad. However, due to limited past experience with receiving foreign disaster-relief support, institutional frameworks for facilitating the reception of foreign aid were found to be lacking and the government ended up declining some offers of assistance. As such, the need to develop frameworks for facilitating international disaster-relief efforts was recognized as an issue needing to be addressed.
