October 2020
Survey of Corporate Attitudes Toward Natural Disasters
36.9% of companies are advancing measures for natural disasters
— SMEs’ status of working on measures remains at a low-level due to challenges, such as cost —
Introduction
A wide range of damage occurred in various regions during 2020 due to the 2020 Kyushu Floods that were centered on the Kyushu and Chubu regions, and Typhoons No. 9 and 10, etc. The government is active in national land resilience against natural disasters, such as having formulated 3-year emergency measures in 2018 to prevent and reduce disasters, and to build national land resilience. Companies are also required to work on measures from various perspectives, including corporate disaster prevention, and with the mindset as a member of the local community.
Teikoku Databank has conducted a survey of corporate attitudes toward natural disasters. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the October 2020 TDB Trends Research.
*Survey period: October 19 – October 31, 2020; Companies Surveyed: 23,695; Valid Responses: 11,448 (Response Rate: 48.3%). This survey for natural disasters is the 2nd such survey following that in November 2019.
*Details of this survey can be found on the dedicated Economic Trend Survey web site. (http://www.tdb-di.com).
Primary points of survey results(summary)
- 1 36.9% of companies are “advancing measures” to prepare for natural disasters, while those “not doing so” stood at 59.1%. While approximately 60% of companies are not advancing measures to prepare for natural disasters, those advancing measures increased by 9.9 points from that in the survey of November 2019, so it showed that the status of working on measures has improved.
- 2 By breaking down those companies advancing measures for natural disasters by size, while 54.9% of large-sized enterprises are “advancing measures,” there is a substantial difference compared with 33.0% of SMEs and 25.7% of small-sized enterprises that are doing so. In particular, the results showed that 69.5% of small-sized enterprises are not advancing such measures. By prefecture, “Kochi” and “Miyazaki” ranked top, with both at 47.7%. The regions situated on the Pacific side also showed high percentages.
- 3 With respect to the natural disaster for which the company is most vigilant, “earthquake” ranked top at 55.0%, followed by “flood disaster,” such as heavy rain and flood (19.5%), and “wind damage” such as typhoons and tornados (9.1%). Regional differences have appeared in each item, such as the South Kanto and Tokai regions with particularly high percentages with respect to earthquakes.
- 4 As efforts for measures to prepare for natural disasters (corporate disaster prevention), “development of internal contact network” ranked top (61.5%) (multiple answers, same applies hereinafter). “Purchase of supplies for emergency” (45.4%), and “stockpiling of drinking water and emergency food, etc.” (42.8%) also showed a high percentage exceeding 40%. On the other hand, efforts to cooperate with other companies in municipalities and areas, and with local residents, remained at a low level.
- 5 With respect to having trouble in responding to natural disasters, “breakdown in equipment” showed the highest percentage (38.4%), followed by “financing the cost” (36.6%) and “dealing with clients” (34.2%), (multiple answers, same applies hereinafter). By size, large-sized enterprises had a high percentage in “securing human resources” and “backup of information system.” On the other hand, “financing the cost” in SMEs greatly exceeded that in large-sized enterprises, which clearly shows they are struggling.