Professor Sotaro Tsuboi held a "Cardboard Disaster Shelter Workshop" for elementary school students atUtsunomiya Campus.

On Monday, August 25, 2025, Professor Sotaro Tsuboi of the Department of Regional Faculty of Economics Department of Regional Economics Teikyo University, held a "Cardboard Disaster Shelter Workshop" for elementary school students at the Toyosato Community Center (Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture). The workshop was held as part of the exciting hands-on classes hosted by the Toyosato Lifelong Learning Center, and aimed to help children deepen their understanding of life in evacuation shelters and environmental improvement in the event of a disaster.
On the day, 30 students from grades 4 to 6 from four elementary schools in the Toyosato area participated.

When a disaster makes it difficult to live at home, people will have to live for a certain period of time in evacuation shelters set up in school gymnasiums, public facilities, etc. Although there is confusion immediately after a disaster, in recent years, improvements to evacuation shelter environments have been progressing quickly. Therefore, based on the state of evacuation shelters in the event of a 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake, everyone considered and presented the problems evacuees would face. Next, they created a "shelter blueprint" taking into account the evacuation space per person. Then, using actual "cardboard beds," which have been increasingly introduced in evacuation shelter operations in recent years, everyone stood on them to experience their strength. Each group also assembled their own beds, chairs, desks, etc. using cardboard boxes of various shapes and sizes that they had brought with them.
Participants commented, "I was surprised that the cardboard beds were stronger than I imagined," and "I learned that we can make things necessary for evacuation shelters using only cardboard, so I would like to use today's experience to help evacuees in the event of a disaster."
We will continue to work towards improving regional disaster prevention and response capabilities through surveys, research, and on-site practice.

For more information about Professor Sotaro Tsuboi, click here
For Department of Regional Economics Faculty of Economics, click here

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