The devastating earthquake that struck the City of Kobe on 17 January, 1995, created many critical issues for the government of Japan. The Kobe shock pointedly revealed that both the central and local governments had neglected to develop the administrative skills necessary for managing major disasters. This paper, first, provides brief background information on the Kobe disaster. It is followed by a discussion of the problems of the Self-Defense Forces and its involvement in Japan’s crisis management. The paper then describes the function of executives at a time of crisis. In the final section, the paper outlines subsequent government efforts to improve the quality of crisis control in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Please cite this paper as: Ninomiya-Mori et al. (2010) Genetic evidence for containment of viruses in the first outbreak of influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 in Kobe, Japan. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses Doi: 10.1111/j.1750-2659.2010.00188.x. On 16 May 2009, a high school student in Kobe with no history of overseas travel was reported as the first case of influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection in Japan. Subsequently, it was revealed that the infection had spread to some cities in the Kansai region and most patients were high school students. The number of patients decreased rapidly within a week; however, it began to increase in the middle of July. We phylogenetically analyzed viral characteristics using 27 viruses isolated from patients living in Kobe. We demonstrated that viruses isolated in the early phase of the outbreak were distinguishable from those after the reappearance of patients. These findings provide genetic evidence for the effectiveness of public health containment measures in the Kansai region in preventing the progression of the outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]