Earthquake Research Institute (ERI) was established on November 13th, 1924, as a part of Tokyo Imperial University. The decade and a half since the establishment of ERI was a period that witnessed the rise of modern seismology in Japan.
After World War II, the institute was re-established as one of the research institutes of the University of Tokyo without obligation to education of undergraduate students. National projects of Earthquake Prediction Program and Volcanic Eruption Prediction Program started in 1965 and in 1974, respectively. ERI played a core role in bearing the heaviest responsibility for carrying out these programs, as well as serving as the central institute for fundamental geophysical researches in Japan.
In the last few decades, various joint researches among universities and institutes have been planned and conducted. Broad-band seismic observations network in the western Pacific (Poseidon Project) and ocean bottom seismic and geophysical observations are just a few of them. In order to promote these joint researches in Japan, ERI was re-organized in June, 1994 as one of shared institutes of the Japanese universities, which is open to all scholars.
Following tasks are assigned to the re-organized institute:
Scientific research on earthquake and volcanic eruption.
Research on predicting earthquake and volcanic eruption.
Research on mitigating earthquake and volcanic eruption hazards.
In April 1997, Ocean Hemisphere Research Center was established to develop and operate a global multidisciplinary network in the Pacific hemisphere consisting of seismic, geoelectromagnetic, and geodetic observations.
