Feeling Safe With Just Disaster Supplies Could Be Deadly Says Former Rescue Worker

Fifteen years have passed since 3.11. With growing awareness of disaster preparedness, more households have started keeping disaster bags and various emergency supplies.

Moreover, every time anxiety spikes—such as during the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January 2024 or the temporary information for the Nankai Trough earthquake in August—sales of disaster kits on e-commerce sites have surged. A survey by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries also revealed that about 40% of households have prepared disaster supplies.

However, former rescue worker and disaster-preparedness YouTuber Taichō (Gō Kaneda), of RESCUE HOUSE, warns that this disaster goods boom itself contains a fatal trap.

“Put extremely bluntly, my advice is: ‘Don’t prepare a disaster bag.’”

A professional in disaster preparedness telling people don’t prepare. We asked him to explain the true meaning behind this statement.

The Trap of the Disaster Goods Myth

“Just this one item is enough” / “30-item evacuation set”

Many people have probably clicked on such catchy phrases on e-commerce sites. But Kaneda points out that this very sense of security can be deadly.

“The moment when lives are lost isn’t during prolonged post-disaster living, but while the shaking is happening, while flames are spreading, while a tsunami is approaching. In such life-or-death moments, trying to carry a disaster bag while fleeing can be fatal.”

He explains that firefighters don’t run to the scene weighed down with heavy gear. So why should untrained civilians try to escape carrying a disaster bag, which acts as a weight?

That said, disaster bags are by no means useless—they’re just meant to be used at a different timing.

“I’m not saying disaster bags or supplies are pointless. They’re useful one or two days after a disaster starts, when you can go back to fetch them—if they’re there, consider yourself lucky.

But nowadays, marketing on e-commerce sites makes many people think, ‘I bought this, so I’m safe,’ and they stop thinking critically. People’s perceptions get automatically updated in the wrong direction.”

Disaster bags can become a hope to survive. But to actually claim that hope, you must first survive the disaster while it is happening. That is the fundamental premise.

The Worst-Case Scenario Caused by Crowd Psychology

Alongside overreliance on disaster goods, Kaneda warns of another danger: normalcy bias and conformity bias.

Normalcy bias is a psychological mechanism in which the brain, faced with an unexpected situation, automatically convinces itself that nothing abnormal is happening to maintain peace of mind. Even in emergencies such as disasters, people conveniently interpret situations as not a big deal or I’ll be fine, underestimating the abnormality as within the normal range.

In daily life, this mechanism helps protect us, but during disasters, it can quickly become life-threatening.

Even more problematic is conformity bias—the belief that “I’ll be safe if I act like everyone else.” In a panic, people tend to mimic the actions of others.

“Everyone is running to the right, so I’ll copy them and go right too. But those people are also just copying the person in front of them; the person leading isn’t necessarily a disaster-preparedness professional.

Maybe they think it’s better than standing still in a panic, but that wrong decision can chain-react, potentially sending everyone into a dangerous area.”

One of the reasons Kaneda started RESCUE HOUSE comes from a story he heard during the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Amid a blaring tsunami warning, voices shouted “Run!” from every direction. A mother, unsure whether to go right or left, grabbed her child’s hand and desperately ran in the direction of the crowd—only to be swept away by the tsunami.

“She didn’t have disaster or tsunami knowledge, but she thought, ‘Even if I don’t survive, I must protect my child.’ She hugged her child as the tsunami carried them. Miraculously, they were washed ashore, but when she looked at the hand she had been holding only one of her child’s arms remained.”

Imagining the Worst Can Save Your Family

Knowledge—or the lack of it—can determine life or death. That much is painfully clear. But in our busy daily lives, how can we make disaster preparedness knowledge feel personal?

“I have a one-year-old baby, so for me, it’s about imagining all the scenarios in which that child could be in danger.”

A brutally honest thought, but Kaneda insists, “This is the essence of it.”

“For example, if a major earthquake struck right now and the kitchen fridge toppled over, what would happen to the baby there? If you can imagine that, you’d immediately think to secure it. But because of normalcy bias, most people stop at, ‘Well, it’ll probably be fine.’ That’s why you need to consciously imagine the worst-case scenario.”

Kaneda calls this practice despair simulation and sees it as the starting point for all disaster preparedness.

“Buying a disaster bag versus imagining the death of a loved one—which is more important? There’s no need to compare. But most people buy the bag and don’t do the imagining. When something happens and they cry, it’s always after the fact: ‘I never thought this would happen.’ That’s why I want people to face it now.”

How to create a safe zone at home

Once you can concretely imagine death for yourself and your family, the next step is to make specific preparations. However, the trouble here is that the correct answer varies greatly depending on the living environment.

If you live in an old wooden house with a high risk of collapse, it is said that the right thing to do is to run outside when the shaking subsides a little. On the other hand, if the house is a newer condominium, evacuation from the house is recommended. In other words, the actions to take are totally different depending on the age of the house, the number of floors, and the composition of the family.

Whether it is a single-family house or an apartment, whether it is on the 1st or 15th floor. Does it meet earthquake resistance standards? Are there infants or the elderly in the family? What kind of risks does the hazard map indicate for your area?

According to Mr. Kanehira, the real preparation is to think through personalized disaster prevention that is tailored to your own living environment.

However, there are some things that all people can do in common. That is to create a safe zone in one’s home.

“The three principles of rescue are no hitting, no cutting, and no getting caught in between. I would like you to create a space, preferably in your bedroom, where this cannot happen. Women and the elderly will be almost completely immobilized if the intensity of the quake reaches 5 or higher, so it is important to make it a place they can reach even if they have to crawl to get there.”

Protect your own life

Fifteen years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Younger generations who do not remember it are increasing. Schools’ disaster drills may come to mind as a way to teach them, but Kaneda points out their limits:

“Teachers aren’t disaster professionals, so that’s understandable. Also, when many people gather, you can only teach things common to everyone. You can’t cover personal preparedness in depth.”

School and community drills aren’t meaningless, but they are not enough.

“You have to know for yourself what you can do to protect your life. If you don’t know where to start, attend a fire drill or disaster prevention event, or watch disaster-preparedness YouTube channels like mine. Take action that way, and gradually increase your knowledge.”

▼ Taichō (Go Kaneda) – Former firefighter and rescue team member. After leaving the force, he founded VITA Co., Ltd. and launched the disaster-preparedness YouTube channel RESCUE HOUSE with the theme “To save lives that can be saved.” The channel has about 490,000 subscribers. His books include Disaster Preparedness Encyclopedia Anyone Can Use, Taught by a Firefighter Rescue Team Member and Disaster Encyclopedia: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Torrential Rain—Knowing What Not to Do When It Happens (both KADOKAWA).

◆ RESCUE HOUSE on YouTube here