Are the protective hoods worn by schoolchildren in times of disasters really effective?

That was a question asked by a woman in her 50s living in Sendai in the “letters from readers” section of Kahoku Shimpo. Protective hoods have gradually spread to elementary schools in Miyagi Prefecture, but some experts say helmets are more effective when disaster strikes.

Lessons from earthquakes

It's an average December day at Yamato Elementary School in Sendai as students quickly take the protective hoods stowed on the back of their chairs and put them on their heads. “We use them about twice a year for disaster drills,” said fifth grader Miu Kawaragi. “Usually, we use them as cushions.”

According to the city’s education board and school supply vendors, protective hoods in schools began to be adopted in the 1970s in the Kanto and Tokai regions to prepare for possible large quakes in the areas.

A Kahoku Shimpo article, published about a year after a 1978 deadly quake off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, reported the growing popularity of the protective hoods at elementary schools in Sendai under the headline “Air-raid hoods make a comeback.”

The article said that some elementary schools in the city, including Yamato Elementary School, began to adopt the hoods in preparation for earthquakes and other disasters. Such hoods had been used during the war to protect children from injury during air raids.

The use of protective hoods spread further through Miyagi Prefecture after a series of large quakes in the Tohoku region — specifically one in 2003 and the devastating 2011 quake that preceded a massive tsunami. In some cases, schools introduced them at the request of parents who moved from the Kanto region where the protective hoods had been more common.

How many Tohoku schools use protective hoods does vary, however. According to the education ministry, the ratio of public schools, from elementary to high schools, that had either protective hoods or helmets prepared stood at 60% in Sendai as of the end of March 2019.

The ratio in Miyagi Prefecture as a whole, excluding Sendai, was at 45%, which was higher than the nationwide figure of 32%, but lower than Tokyo’s 74% and the city of Shizuoka's 78%. The rate was low in other prefectures in the Tohoku region, with the figure standing at 18% in Fukushima, 13% in Aomori, 11% in Iwate, 8% in Yamagata and 5% in Akita.

'Always prepared'

The woman in Sendai who sent the letter said she was asked to buy a protective hood 18 years ago when her child entered elementary school. “I bought it because everyone else was buying one,” she said. “But I didn’t like it, to be honest, as I felt like it was something carried over from the wartime.”

School supply vendors in Sendai say protective hoods are sold for about ¥2,500 ($22) each, and covering for them for about ¥1,200 each.

On the effectiveness of such hoods in protecting the head in times of disasters, a 2010 test by the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan showed that damage was reduced by about 50% when a 5-kilogram object was dropped from a height of 10 centimeters. Some hoods showed a damage reduction rate of up to 80%.

The center explains that hoods are suited for protection against falling books and other relatively light objects, while helmets provide much stronger protection.

Hisanao Orihara, a disaster prevention adviser for Sendai, says hoods are stronger than caps or hats but weaker than helmets when it comes to protecting the head from falling objects. “But they are effective in protecting not just the head, but also the face and shoulders from sparks of fire or shattered glass,” he said.

Having protective hoods, along with commuting by bicycle or stocking up portable stoves and other supplies, is a good example of being always prepared for disasters, he said. In fact, during the 2011 quake in Tohoku, protective hoods worked as pillows or outfits for keeping warm at elementary schools in Miyagi Prefecture.

Switching to helmets

Nobue Kunizaki, president of the Tokyo-based Risk and Crisis Management Educational Institute who has written numerous books on disaster prevention, argues that helmets are much more useful than hoods as protective gear in times of disaster.

“Why do teachers and firefighters wear helmets? If you had a choice in a disaster, which would you choose?” she asks.

"If we consider protecting lives as the top priority based on scientific findings, I don’t understand why outdated hoods still exist,” she said.

Helmets cost between ¥3,000 and ¥5,000, not much more expensive than protective hoods. If they have flameproof flaps, they can protect against sparks as well. According to Kunizaki, Yokohama and other cities are switching from hoods to helmets, saying that any difficulty of storing and wearing helmets can be overcome with ingenuity.

In the House of Representatives, protective hoods had been in place since 1986, but they were changed to foldable helmets in 2017 after some lawmakers questioned their strength.

“We must avoid a situation in which we would say, 'If we had used helmets instead of hoods, we might have been able to save lives,'” Kunizaki said. “Since hoods are not widely used in Tohoku, I would like to see helmets introduced from the beginning.”

The central government has not backed one side on the issue. An education ministry official says it is better to leave the decision to each local government, as disaster risks vary from region to region.

It remains unclear, however, who is responsible for updating disaster prevention measures at schools.

An official at the Sendai Board of Education said, "It seems that most elementary schools have adopted hoods, but I have never heard of helmets. It is up to each school to decide, and we don't know the actual situation.”

Are schoolbags an effective alternative?

Ryoichi Yoshida, another disaster prevention adviser for Sendai, points out that randoseru, Japan's traditional school bags, are more effective than helmets or hoods as they can protect both the heads and backs of children.

Protective hoods and helmets are designed to be worn when evacuating to school grounds after a quake has stopped. “If an earthquake shakes again during evacuation, children will be scared and squat down. There is a risk of falling objects hitting their backs and seriously injuring them," he said.

Yoshida recommends evacuating with a school bag on one’s back. “If you cover your head with the lid and sit on the ground, you can protect your head, neck, and back,” he said, adding that it works when there is a quake on the way to and from school.

He stressed that knowing what to do during the shaking is more important. “When you are under the desk, it is important to take the right steps to prevent the desk from collapsing,” he said.

According to Yoshida, desks with four legs can be stabilized by grasping the top of the diagonal legs.

Since 2012, Yoshida has been advising the central government’s disaster prevention projects and serving as a lecturer at teacher training sessions and other events.

“Schools have not been properly informed about the right actions to be taken, and it has not been verified as to which method would be the best,” he said. “The municipal boards of education should show some examples and not leave it up to each school.”

This section features topics and issues from the Tohoku region covered by the Kahoku Shimpo, the largest newspaper in Tohoku. The original articles were published Dec. 15 and Jan. 14.