Schools have recently made efforts to include education for disaster prevention. Teachers have practices lessons using teaching materials as authoritative guidelines for disaster prevention education; thus, by understanding the basis of learning, they are engaging in educational practice. The purpose of this study is to clarify the contents and practical use of educational manuals for disaster prevention education in schools. Additional purpose is the manual contents were analyzed from five perspectives that should be examined in education for disaster prevention (i.e., the original goals, topographical characteristics of the area and that of past disasters, sustainability, the role of social studies and geography, and child development stages). Four items comprised most of the disaster prevention education manuals’ contents: i.e., the disaster prevention education aim, characteristics and consideration of disaster prevention educational practices, or examples of situations during a natural disaster. The result of analysis show that some manuals present topographical materials and past disasters in each local area. However, specific contents of disaster were different for each prefecture. Furthermore, there were very few contents about sustainability. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to improve teaching materials for disaster prevention education that understands the regional circumstances such as dangerous areas and includes an education for sustainable development perspective.