Response from Osaka University regarding the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake
As of February 15, 2024
Message from President Nishio
Support for Prospective and Current Students
For Prospective Students
For Current Students
Support Efforts by Osaka University
Graduate School of Dentistry | Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Group Leader: Professor SAKAI Takayoshi (Graduate School of Dentistry)
Activities: Infection prevention measures including oral health care
After receiving permission from Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare staff staying in the quake-hit area at an online meeting, this group donated MA-T (Matching Transformation System®), an on-demand aqueous chlorine dioxide solution, whose safety and effectiveness had been validated by Osaka University.
This group sends various sanitizing agents (mouthwash, hand sanitizer, body wash) to temporary evacuation centers for the elderly, disabled individuals, pregnant women, and infants, as needed.
Graduate School of Human Sciences
Group Leader: Professor ATSUMI Tomohide (Graduate School of Human Sciences)
Activities: Preparing relief supplies and initial survey on relief supplies for the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake
Locations: Shika Town, Nakanoto Town, Hakui City, Nanao City, Wajima City
Graduate School of Human Sciences
Group Leader: Professor Elli W Sugita (Graduate School of Human Sciences)
Activities: Menstrual hygiene management support for women and initial survey in earthquake-stricken area under the Menstrual Wellbeing by/in Social Design (MeW) Project
Locations: Nanao City, Wajima City
Graduate School of Human Sciences | Center for Collaborative Future Creation, Graduate School of Human Sciences
Grouop Leader: Associate Professor SUGIMOTO Megumi (Graduate School of Human Sciences)
Activities: Cooperation with media coverage on tsunami prevention measures and challenges that women face at evacuation centers by giving expert advice
United Graduate School of Child Development
Group Leader: Assistant Professor YAMAMOTO Tomoka (United Graduate School of Child Development)
Activities: Revisions and publication of documents detailing changes in the minds and bodies of children after earthquakes
To adapt to a situation after the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, this group revised leaflets on changes in the minds and bodies of children after earthquakes, which were made for children and their parents after the Northern Osaka Earthquake of 2018, and posted to the website of the United Graduate School of Child Development.
This group also provided this information to Assistant Professor SAITO Ryo so that these leaflets would be posted to the website that collects links pertaining to school education after the earthquake, “2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake Education Hub for All People,” which is created by the professor of the International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University.
Osaka University Hospital
Activities: Dispatch of Disaster Medical Assistant Team* (DMAT)
*Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT): A trained and mobile medical team consisting of physicians, nurses, and logistical specialists, such as other than doctors and nurses, and administrative staff, is dispatched to a large-scale disaster or accident sites to provide emergency treatment, including acute care.
This group created the Noto Peninsula Earthquake Response Headquarters in the Altitude Emergency and Critical Care Medical Center in the Osaka University Hospital.
At the request of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) and Osaka Prefecture, from January 9 to January 27, 2024, they dispatched 4 DMAT teams (a total of 16 medical professionals) to the earthquake-stricken area.
At the DMAT operational headquarters established at Ishikawa Prefectural Central Hospital, this group led some 30 DMATs in transporting of the elderly evacuees from the Noto region to the Kanazawa region.
This group performed medical checks, acceptance procedures at the temporary shelters in Kanazawa City and engaged in various support activities, including emergency medical response to people with symptoms (sometimes on the night shift) as well as transportation of the elderly to medical institutes and its coordination.
For activities of DMAT, click here.
Message and Support for Individuals Affected by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake (Osaka University Hospital) (link in Japanese)
Osaka University Libraries
Activities: Extending services, such as remote access to some databases or the ability to borrow books, to university-related users in the earthquake-stricken area
Students and faculty members of universities in disaster-affected regions who are evacuating or returning home in Osaka Prefecture and the surrounding area can use Osaka University libraries.
For details, click here.
Osaka University Life Sciences Library
Activities: Providing free document copying services as support to affected regions
As for request for copies of documents from universities in Ishikawa, Toyama, and Niigata prefectures, the Osaka University Life Sciences Library copies requested documents and send them by express delivery free of charge in order to deliver medical information as quickly as possible.
For details, click here.
Graduate School of Engineering
Group Leader: Professor KASHIWA Hisatoshi (Graduate School of Engineering)
Activities: 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake damage survey
Together with Building Guidance Division, Housing Bureau, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Tourism; the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management; the Building Research Institute; Tokyo Institute of Technology; Chiba Institute of Technology; and the Center for Better Living, this group performed regional survey on buildings and houses affected by the earthquake.
Related Links (links in Japanese)
Professor Kashiwa investigating earthquake damage
(Image taken from the Field Investigation Report)