Chika Watanabe, "Play to Survive: Disaster Preparedness Along the Ring of Fire" (Stanford UP, 2026)

We live in a fragile world. This much is evident as stories abound of

natural disasters that wipe out communities in an instant. How can we

survive the future on such a planet, amid intensifying climate change?

This question is particularly poignant along the Ring of Fire, a

tectonic belt in the Pacific region that routinely faces some of the

most devastating disasters in the world. Based on ethnographic research

spanning seven years, Play to Survive: Disaster Preparedness Along the Ring of Fire

(Stanford University Press, 2026) examines the work of preparedness

training in Japan and Chile, two primary nations along the Ring of Fire

that experience frequent and intense disasters. Experts from these

countries have often collaborated to create some of the most advanced

disaster preparedness systems in the world. Dr. Chika Watanabe traces