Overview of the world bosai forum public cultural event: “Pre-wbf festival – learning from the disaster, bridging to the future: Held in partnership with the science agora”

This study overviews “the Pre-WBF Festival – Learning from the disaster, bridging to the future: held in partnership with the Science Agora” (the Pre-WBF Festival), and recounts its achievements. This was a cultural, admission-free public event, held as the opening event of the first “World Bosai Forum/International Disaster Risk Conference in Sendai” (WBF). The Pre-WBF Festival was planned primarily by academics with a view towards “pass-ing on experiences of the Great East Japan Earth-quake,” “bridging the divide between academia and society,” “success of the WBF,” and so on. Parties in-volved in media provided advice on onstage presen-tations and public relations activity. The event, which had 662 participants from inside and outside of Japan, was a success. An analysis of the results of a question-naire demonstrates that the participants understood the intentions of the event and reacted very favor-ably. Although participation of younger generations remains an issue, the Pre-WBF Festival is thought to be an effective method to connect academia and citi-zens. In addition, if such an event is held regularly, it can successfully pass on disaster experience in the future.