High-tech startups break into the field of disaster prevention

Startups are gaining a growing presence in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation, leveraging their strength in technology and ability to rapidly develop goods and services in response to actual needs in disaster areas.

Wota Corp released a portable recycled water treatment device in 2019. Called the Wota Box, it is capable of making 98 percent of the water discharged after showering, hand washing and laundry reusable. Thanks to the water quality managed by artificial intelligence technology, Wota Box saves drinking water when the water supply is interrupted.

A photo taken on March 30, 2021 in Tokyo shows Wuta president Yosuke Maeda, next to a Wuta box, a portable recycled water treatment device used in disasters. (Kyodo)

More than 20 local governments have introduced the device for use in times of disaster.

When a series of earthquakes hit the southwestern Japanese prefectures of Kumamoto and Oita in 2016, the startup, a spin-off from the University of Tokyo, volunteered to bring in a prototype of WotaBox for use in providing showers in evacuation centers.

Encouraged by the positive reaction of evacuees, Wota set up similar shower facilities in the shelters when torrential rains inundated western Japan in 2018. However, a problem arose: The device needed someone well-versed in how it worked to be on hand to operate it.

Thus Wota has improved the AI ​​system to make it more user friendly. During a series of floods that occurred in July 2020 due to heavy rains in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures, staff at shelters were able to use the Wota Box after receiving instructions from the company.

Yosuke Maeda, President of WATA, said that the experience of deploying it in disaster situations has made WATABox “more socially usable.”

Kokua Inc. was started. Ltd., another Tokyo-based startup, is into catalog-based marketing of emergency supplies such as fire extinguishers and survival food.

Pictures show gift catalogs from Kokua Inc. , which provides supplies such as fire extinguishers and disaster survival food. (Courtesy of Cocoa Corporation) (Kyodo)

“Since no one knows when a disaster will occur, some people do not want to buy emergency supplies,” Coco President Yosaku Izumi said. “But if you make it a gift that people can choose, you give them a chance to learn more about disasters as a result.”

Izumi said the demand for emergency supplies grows as gifts when people move into their homes or build new ones.

Born in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Izumi witnessed the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 and worked as a volunteer in the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the rain disaster in western Japan.

He founded Cocoa with people who worked with him as volunteers. They developed the emergency supply line based on experiences we heard first-hand from disaster victims.

Ikusa Inc. plans to Inc., an event management startup in Tokyo, provides sports festivals for local governments and businesses, enabling participants to learn the know-how of disaster protection while enjoying sporting events, problem-solving games and food for survival.

In the emergency supply market, food stocks alone are expected to increase to 27.8 billion yen ($252 million) in fiscal 2024 from 14.3 billion yen in fiscal 2015, according to the Yanu Research Institute.

Hironobu Azuma, a researcher familiar with startups at the Japan Research Institute, said the government is speeding up the response to risk management processes as a result of successive natural disasters and the coronavirus pandemic.

He said that joint efforts between the government and good start-ups in providing easy-to-use tools to tackle challenging disaster-related challenges will increase.

Pictures show people gathered at a disaster prevention sports festival in Kagawa Prefecture, western Japan, in 2019, held by Ikusa Inc. Inc., a start-up event management company in Tokyo. (Courtesy of Ikusa Inc.) (Kyodo)

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