The paper describes the introduction of an emphasis on 'personal security' in human security thinking and practice, as part of the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to compartmentalize the pursuit of security. It reviews the past twenty years of attention to 'personal security': both in compartments that consider organized physical violence or threats to personal safety and property ('citizen security'), and as parts of more wide-ranging examination of threats to fulfilment of basic needs and rights, for example in comprehensive mapping exercises undertaken in various UNDP Regional and National Human Development Reports or in studies of women's security. The paper reflects on the complex process of opening-up conventional security thinking and practice, seeking value-added and depth without shrinking into preconceived compartments.Keywords: human security, personal security, citizen security, gender violence, Human Development Reports The evolution of a boundary concept: the limits of compartmentalizationHuman security analysis looks at threats to fulfilment of basic values in people's lives. It seeks to reorient use of the prioritizing concept 'security', towards securing basic needs of ordinary people. So it answers the question 'whose security?' with: 'each of us and all of us'.In addressing next the question 'security of what?', some forms of human security analysis have adopted compartmentalization, trying to separately discuss 'personal security', 'economic security', 'environmental security' and so on. This can be helpful, and fits established bureaucratic and disciplinary convenience. It is also often unhelpful. Many important threats arise out of the interconnections between different aspects and forces in particular situations, so that much of the value-added from human security analysis comes not from putting a new name on topics already considered under existing bureaucratic and 2 disciplinary arrangements but from functioning as a boundary concept to transcend those divisions, flexibly according to the nature of particular situations. A focus on how people live and can live, and the function of looking at priority values and priority threats, require a transdisciplinary holistic perspective, at least periodically, in order to see linkages and to draw comparisons across 'sectors' to try to ensure priority attention to the threats most relevant in the given time and place.We examine these themes with special reference to 'personal security', a prominent-and some argue pre-eminently important-area in human security policy and research, that stands in contrast to the predominant fields of policy attention in the 20 th century: national state security and economic growth. We touch on three major (overlapping) sub-areas of work:-violence against civilians, during wars, civil wars and other armed conflict; crime against civilians; and violence against women, during peace as well as war, considered as part of broader examination of threats and forms of marginalization affecting women.Section 2 explain...

The objective of this study is to document the reaction of international students to the 11 March 2011 emergency in order to inform and improve disaster management strategies, both public and institutional. The study is based mainly on a questionnaire survey carried out in August 2011 and follow-up interviews with students and other stakeholders. It describes the background of Tohoku University's School of Engineering and covers six different stages in the evolution of the emergency: (1) immediate response; (2) taking shelter in Sendai; (3) life in the city during the aftermath; (4) sheltering outside Sendai; (5) coming back; plus (6) an overview of the experience. Major findings include: the process of evacuation and safety confirmation was successful, yet the subsequent phases (2 and 3) went on mostly unmanaged; students relied mostly on secondary sources of information to make decisions, mainly family and friends of the same nationality, most of whom probably were not better informed than the students themselves. Based on the findings, suggestions for future disaster planning are advanced, as well as a discussion on the challenges of information provision during crisis.

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In today's world, communities and individuals are exposed to old and new threats such as civil wars, terrorism, natural disasters, infectious diseases, economic downturns, climate change and famines. Human security is an idea and an approach developed to address the pressing needs and moral imperatives arising from those insecurities faced by all humankind. The idea urges to secure fundamental freedoms for everyone, i.e., freedom from fear, freedom from want, and freedom to live in dignity, by combining top-down protection and bottom-up empowerment. While the importance of such an idea has been increasingly discussed since its emergence in the mid-1990s, the ways to operationalize it in practice remain a contested matter. In particular, the practice of Japan's ODA has received less attention despite Japan being the only government fully committed to the promotion of human security, with ODA as its major tool since 2003. Aiming to inform practice in coming decades, this paper explores the ways how to operationalize the idea, by following the recent history of Japan's ODA activities related to human security. After briefly recounting the connection between Japan's ODA and the idea of human security at the policy level, we trace the evolution of its practice, mainly focusing on bilateral contributions by JICA, in the four emblematic areas linked to human security: natural disasters, climate change, infectious diseases and violent conflict. Our examination reveals that Japan's ODA practice has, in general, been evolving in a way that resonates with the idea of human security. In order to consolidate this trend and to further operationalize human security, however, there still remains much to be done. We have identified three significant directions that can be taken to further operationalize human security: emphasizing prevention, realizing seamless assistance, and caring for the most vulnerable.

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Human security was advocated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) after the demise of the Cold War (UNDP 1993, 2-3; 1994, Chap. 2). A quarter of a century has passed since then, and some who were once enthusiastic about this concept no longer discuss it. However, when some lost interest, others took up the idea in other places. 1 It may thus seem to have faded out from time to time, but in reality, it did not. Where does this persistence come from?