This research is examining the human and societal factors that influence a developed society’s ability to recover from extreme events and to reduce impacts from future events. The research explores socio-cultural differences, such as individual behaviour, collective ideologies, social structures and policy, in four case study areas that are currently in post-event recovery phases but with different situations and cultural identities: flood-impacted Lockyer Valley and St George regions in Queensland, and tsunami-impacted Tohoku and Fukushima regions, outside and inside the extreme caution zone against radiation, in Japan.