Exposed to various natural hazard risks, JapanJapan has a long history of disaster experience, established governance structures, and precedents for disaster management, response, and recovery. In the last 75 years since World War IIWorld War II, Japan became a highly modernized and industrialized country, incorporating strong disaster management along with economic development, and even promoting its experience with economic growth and disaster risk reduction as part of foreign assistance and disaster diplomacy in Asia (Maly, 2025) Although Japan’s economy is no longer growing, it retains strong governancegovernance and financial commitments to disaster mitigationdisaster mitigation, response, and recovery as a high-income country. However, disasters in Japan cause severe human and economic damage, including after the two cases in this chapter: the 1995 Great Hanshin Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake1995 Great Hanshin Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake and 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunamitsunami, and nuclear disasternuclear disaster. Looking back at these two examples, 30 and 14 years ago, respectively, this chapter considers the long-termlong-term outcomes of post-disasterpost-disaster housing reconstructionhousing reconstruction. Drawing on past research, information was compiled from multiple sources, including reference materials and site visits. To clarify experiences and opinions about long-term outcomes, semi-structured interviews were conducted with recovery stakeholders, including current and former government staff, academic experts, community planners, non-profit organizations, community leaders, and residents. Between January and May 2024, interviews were conducted with 10 stakeholders in Shichigahama TownShichigahama Town and 10 stakeholders in KobeKobe (Fig. 4.1). Following an explanation of Japanese contexts of hazardshazards, disaster managementdisaster management, and reconstruction policyreconstruction policy, analysis of each case considers the disaster impacts, housing recovery policy, and implementation. Looking back at the outcomes, we can understand the continuity and commonalities of post-disaster housing recovery in Japan, and the evolution of housing recovery since 1995. The conclusion reflects on strengths and weaknesses of Japanese government-drivenHousing recoverygovernment-driven housing recovery, suggestions for improvements, and potential lessons for other countries related to roles of government, CSOs, and non-profit organizationsnon-profit organizations, holistic recoveryholistic recovery, and community empowermentcommunity empowerment for risk reductionrisk reduction and resilienceresilience.