The purpose of this study was to identify factors responsible for injuries in Judo class conducted in junior high schools, after Judo had been required as the educational contents of the physical education subject in 2012. Data on injuries was provided by the Japan Sports Council and a quantitative text analysis ‘KH coder’ , as well as the analysis of accident frequencies (e.g., chi-square test, residual analysis), was used to identify the factors causing injuries. The main results were as follows: (1) After Judo had been required as the educational contents, the proportion of injuries became significantly higher among 1st graders and lower among 3rd graders (p<.01). It became significantly higher in girls and lower in boys (p<.05). (2) The quantitative text analysis revealed an association between grades (and sex) and injuries in Ukemi (breakfalling techniques), Katame-waza (grapping techniques), and Nage-waza (throwing techniques) practices. It was found that injuries tended to occur among 1st grade boys who practiced Katame-waza, 3rd grade boys who practiced Nage-waza, and 1st to 3rd grade girls who practiced Ukemi. However, the frequency of injury was low among 1st grade boys who practiced Nage-waza, 2nd grade boys who practiced Ukemi, 3rd grade boys who practiced Katame-waza and Ukemi, 1st grade girls who practiced Nage-waza, and 2nd grade girls who practiced Katame-waza. (3) The frequency of injuries was higher in gymnasium than Budo-kan, but not significantly. The above results indicated that although most boys could master Ukemi and learned Judo step-wise and systematically, many girls tended to be instructed on Ukemi in spite of difficulties in Ukemi learning. In gymnasium, there were some problems regarding gaps between mats and the impact mitigation of mats.

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To widely conduct educational activities to protect lives from tsunami, the author has developed teaching materials called “Workshop for Tsunami Disaster Prevention”. For the present study, 15 workshops were held for students aged 1117. Questionnaire survey results for the students who attended the workshops included the following difference in response. Students 12 years old and under thought that evacuation to high places was the most important thing to remember in the event of a tsunami. On the other hand, students 13 years old and over thought that it was most important to take the initiative to evacuate and to promise to their families that they would evacuate themselves in order to save everyone’s lives from the tsunami. The above difference in the survey results suggests that students’ understanding changes according to age.

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The “4-frame cartoon” takes a gaming and exercise-based learning approach. Participants imagine themselves taking part in managing the evacuation sites and collaborate with others in facing the dilemmatic situations. The first 3 frames illustrate the proposed dilemmatic situation, and the 4th frame is left blank for participants to fill out with a dialogue. This dialogue is to be the result of a consensus-making process amongst participants, in coming up with a solution to the situation.

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