SMART Governance Under COVID-19 Pandemics: Strategic Endeavours Towards Sustainability Made by Local Communities in Japan

Abstract

This chapter gives an overall description of how Japan has coped with COVID-19 pandemics. Under COVID-19 pandemics, many smaller communities tended to suffer less, or even survive better with small and modest adaptive approaches to transform themselves, than most larger cities and metropolitan regions. The cases of Tottori Prefecture and the town of Chizu are highlighted, and illustrations are made to explain how small and modest adaptive approaches have worked relatively well here. Some reasons have been examined such as good political leadership based on the former lessons learned from the previous coronavirus threats which Tottori Prefecture scarcely avoided in 2009 when South Korea suffered from them. The Town of Chizu has demonstrated well how the previous efforts to adaptively enhance community’s coping capacity called SMART Governance have worked effectively under the new persistent disruptive stressor (PDS), i.e. COVID-10 pandemics.

Citation

Okada, N. (2023), "SMART Governance Under COVID-19 Pandemics: Strategic Endeavours Towards Sustainability Made by Local Communities in Japan", Chatterji, M., Luterbacher, U., Fert, V. and Chen, B. (Ed.) Globalisation and COVID-19 (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 31), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 73-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1572-832320230000031004