[Profile]

Ph.D. in Engineering

Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Environment and Society, Institute of Science Tokyo [Link]

(Graduate Major in Urban Design and Built Environment [Link])

Office address: Room 533, W-9, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro, Tokyo, 152-8550, Japan 

Email: kotani.h.15c7(at)m.isct.ac.jp

[Areas of Interest]

Disaster risk reduction, social networks, community

[Biography]

2024. 10 - Current: Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Environment and Society, Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan

2024. 04 - 2024. 09: Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Environment and Society, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

2022. 04 - 2024. 03: Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Resources, Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Japan

2021. 04 - 2024. 03: Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Management, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan

2020. 04 - 2021. 03: Research Associate, Institute of Engineering Innovation, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan

2017. 07 - 2020. 03: Research Associate, Department of International Studies, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan

2017. 04 - 2017. 06: Program-Specific Researcher, Disaster Prevention Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan

2015. 04 - 2017. 03: Research Fellow of Japan Society of Promotion Science

2013. 10 - 2016. 09: Doctoral Student, Department of Urban Management, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Japan

Curriculum Vitae

[Publications]

Peer-Reviewed Papers & Proceedings

• 1. Sawada, Y., Yagi, R., Kawabata, T., & Kotani, H.  (2026). Cry wolf effect in flood early warning. Progress in Disaster Science, 32, 100762. [Link]

  2. Kotani, H., Okai, H., Nejima, S., Yamagata, M., Sato, Y., & Maeno, N. (2026). Inclusive mass fatality management and planning in cremation-dominant societies: Policy challenges and recommendations from Japan. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 20. [Link]

  3. Watanabe, M., Kotani, H., Yagi, R., Sawada, Y., & Kawabata, T. (2026). Emotional responses and perceptions of false alarms in flood warnings and their impact on evacuation action: An empirical analysis of the Kyushu Region, Japan. Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan. Ser. II, 104, 29. [Link]

  4. Hyodo, S., Kotani, H., & Okai, H. (2026). Assessing the potential of mosques for disaster response in Tokyo, Japan. Progress in Disaster Science, 29, 100527. [Link]

  5. Matsuda, H., Kotani, H., & Onishi, M. (2025). Causal effects of perceived false alarm ratio on flood protective actions during heavy rain warnings in Japan: A case study of Tropical Storm Yun-yeung in 2023. Weather, Climate, and Society, 17 (4), 683-698. [Link]

  6. Kotani, H., Hyodo, S., & Okai, H. (2025). Overview of the natural hazard exposure of mosques in Japan. Natural Hazards, 121, 19425-19436. [Link]

  7. Yamazaki, S., Kotani, H., Nakano, K., & Matsushima, K. (2025). Using electric vehicles to power houses or travel during blackouts triggered by natural hazards: A choice experiment in Japan. Energy and Buildings, 342, 115801. [Link]

  8. Kotani, H., Ogawa, W., & Matsushima, K. (2025). Does the performance of a flood early warning system affect casualties and economic losses? Empirical analysis using open data from the 2018 Japan Floods. Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan. Ser. II, 103 (4), 481-496. [Link]

  9. Tanimoto, R., & Kotani, H. (2025). The effect of pay-it-forward during disasters on social networks: A network approach. Journal of Disaster Research, 20 (3), 377-385. [Link]

  10. Kotani, H., Ogawa, W., Matsushima, K., Susaki, J., & Sawada, Y. (2024). Modeling the dynamics of social preparedness with regional interactions to explore efficient flood early warning systems. Weather, Climate, and Society, 16 (4), 771-788. [Link]

  11. Kotani, H., Okai, H., Nejima, S., & Tamura, M. (2024). Initial responses of mosques in Ishikawa and Toyama after the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, Japan. Journal of Disaster Research, 19 (6), 1006-1015. [Link]

  12. Kotani, H., Okai, H., & Tamura, M. (2023). Activities and roles of mosques in Japan after the recent major earthquakes: A comprehensive study. Progress in Disaster Science, 20, 100297. [Link]

  13. Kishi, S., Kotani, H., & Matsushima, K. (2023). Diffusion of electric vehicles and public and home charging stations in a two-sided market. Proceedings of IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC) Conference, 3277-3284. [Link] 

  14. Kotani, H., & Nakano, K. (2023). Household resilience realized by photovoltaic and battery energy system in natural hazard-triggered blackouts: Evidence from Japan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 90, 103656. [Link]

  15. Kotani, H., & Nakano, K. (2023). How a household survived a natural hazard-triggered blackout with photovoltaic and battery energy system: A report of 2018 Hokkaido Eastern Iburi earthquake in Japan. Journal of Disaster Research, 18 (3), 280-286. [Link]

  16. Kotani, H., & Nakano, K. (2023). Purchase decision process and information acquisition of zero-energy houses in Japan. Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 22 (2), 556-575. [Link]

  17. Kotani, H., Tamura, M., Katsura, Y., & Moinuddin, M. (2022). The potential and roles of ethnic minorities in disaster risk reduction: IDRiM2022 conference session report on Muslim communities in Japan. Journal of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Journal), 12 (2), 91-99. [Link]

  18. Tamura, M., Kotani, H., Katsura, Y., & Okai, H. (2022). Mosque as a COVID-19 vaccination site in collaboration with a private clinic: A short report from Osaka, Japan. Progress in Disaster Science, 16, 100263. [Link]

  19. Kotani, H., Okai, H., & Tamura, M. (2022). COVID-19 vaccination at a mosque with multilingual and religious considerations for ethnic minorities: A case study in Kanagawa, Japan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 82, 103378. [Link]

  20. Sawada, Y., Kanai, R., & Kotani, H. (2022). Impact of cry wolf effects on social preparedness and efficiency of flood early warning systems. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 26, 4265-4278. [Link] 

  21. Kotani, H., Okai, H., & Tamura, M. (2022). Mosque as a vaccination site for ethnic minority in Kanagawa, Japan: leaving no one behind amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 16(6), 2683-2685. [Link] 

  22. Kotani, H., Tamura, M., & Nejima, S. (2022). Mosques in Japan responding to COVID-19 pandemic: infection prevention and support provision. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 69, 102702. [Link]

  23. Yokomatsu, M., Park, H., Kotani, H., & Ito, H. (2022). Designing the building space of a shopping street to use as a disaster evacuation shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study in Kobe, Japan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 67, 102680. [Link]

  24. Kotani, H., Tamura, M., Li, J., & Yamaji, E. (2021). Potential of mosques to serve as evacuation shelters for foreign Muslims during disasters: a case study in Gunma, Japan. Natural Hazards, 109, 1407-1423. [Link]

  25. Yokomatsu, M., & Kotani, H. (2021). Knowledge sharing, heterophily, and social network dynamics. The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 45 (2), 111-133. [Link]

  26. Kotani, H., Honda, R., Imoto, S., Shakya, L., & Shrestha, B. (2020). Transition of post-disaster housing of rural households: a case study of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 44, 101443. [Link]

  27. Kotani, H., Yokomatsu, M., & Ito, H. (2020). Potential of a shopping street to serve as a food distribution center and an evacuation shelter during disasters: case study of Kobe, Japan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 44, 101286. [Link]

  28. Kotani, H., Honda, R., & Sugitani, R. (2019). Transition in subjective factors to trigger recovery action of rural residents affected by the 2015 Gorkha Nepal earthquake. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 39, 101239. [Link]

  29. Kotani, H., & Honda, R. (2019). Effective combinations of information content and channels for the post-disaster reconstruction of rural housing: a case study of the 2015 Gorkha Nepal Earthquake. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 39, 101118. [Link]

  30. Kotani, H., & Yokomatsu, M. (2019). Quantitative evaluation of the roles of community events and artifacts for social network formation: a multilayer network model of a community of practice. Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 25 (4), 428-463.  [Link]

  31. Kotani, H., & Yokomatsu, M. (2016). Natural disasters and dynamics of "a paradise built in hell": a social network approach. Natural Hazards, 84(1), 309-333. [Link]

  32. Kotani, H., & Yokomatsu, M. (2015). Role of local festivals on network formation among a variety of residents in a community. Proceedings of IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC) Conference, 832-839. [Link]

  33. Kotani, H., & Yokomatsu, M. (2013). Inheritance of local culture and disaster: identity-formation-model approach. Journal of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Journal), 3 (1), 107-125. [Link]

My Google Scholar Citations

Work in Progress

• 1. Estimating municipal-level foreign Muslim population in Japan (with Yuya Kawashima), in preparation.

  2. False alarm ratio of flood warnings in Japan (with Sultana Rajia and Mai Watanabe), in revision. [Link]

  3. Content analysis of newspaper articles on minorities in DRR  (with Hirofumi Okai), revised & resubmitted. [Link]  

  4. Effect of reconstruction measures on relocation community after Morakot Typhoon disaster (with Riki Honda and Kanako Yasutomi), in preparation.

Non-Reviewed Papers & Proceedings

• 1. Kotani, H., & Yokomatsu, M. (2015). Disasters as extraordinary situations and social network formation: Does “a paradise built in hell” emerge?, Extended Abstract for TIFAC-IDRiM Conference 28th-30th October 2015, New Delhi, India. (Received Silver Prize Award for my oral presentation in Young Scientists Session.) 

Doctoral Dissertation

• • Kotani, H. (2016). Evaluation of the Function of Local Assets on the Formation of Social Networks and a Resident's Identity, Kyoto University. [Link]

If you do not have access to a journal and would like a reprint of a published paper for your own reading, please email me at kotani.h.15c7(at)m.isct.ac.jp.