
While teaching and researching, she revisited her volunteer experience after the 1995 Hanshin Awaji Earthquake in Kobe and developed her research interest in disaster health and nursing. She is especially interested in answering the question of “How can We Create a Resilient Society with an Aging Population?” Prof. Kako worked at WHO Kobe Centre in 2014-15 to support preparing the public forums held at the Third UN World Conference for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Her current research has been working internationally to assess the health care systems by utilizing workshops and scorecards, nurse preparedness changes before and after COVID-19, and disaster risk reduction research with multidisciplinary teams. She is also a member of the Disaster Resilience Centre, a course program associate for the Phoenix Leader Program at Hiroshima University.