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7
July - September 2014
For decades, Japan has been assisting countries
in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) by sharing its
own experiences, from having been affected by
disasters. Japan in the recent years has experienced
unprecedented disasters, including the Kobe
Earthquake (1995) and East Japan Earthquake and
Tsunami (2011). Just like Pacific countries, Japan
is an island country constantly being affected by
earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, typhoons
and volcanic eruptions. Japan’s long history of fighting
disasters has built some of the world’s leading science
and technology in DRR. While Japan is known more
for its infrastructural and technical measures, there
is also an extensive knowledge base in non-structural
DRR measures, including institutional building, end-
to-end early warning systems, DRR education and
community-based DRR. Despite this, the East Japan
earthquake and tsunami caused 19,074 deaths and
left 2633 missing. This proved that DRR measures are
never sufficient and that Japan must continue to learn
the lessons from other disaster experiences around
the world.
By hosting the last two UN World Conference on
Disaster Risk Reduction (Yokohama 1994 and Kobe
2005), Japan had also contributed to the development
of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA: 2005 -
2015) – the global agenda for DRR. Next March, it
will again host the 3rd World Conference on Disaster
Risk Reduction in Sendai that will approve the post-
2015 DRR global framework. The 7th Pacific Islands
Leaders Meeting (PALM7) coming up in May 2015 in
Fukushima will also flag assistance in DRR and climate
change as one of the prioritised areas for cooperation.
Japan is now able to support countries in the Pacific to
strengthen their DRR measures. Through agreement
with the Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA), Shohei Matsuura, joined the SPC Disaster
Reduction Programme (DRP) as the JICA DRR Expert
for the Pacific Region to provide support to SPC as well
as its partners and members. Shohei has extensive
experience in formulating and managing DRR projects
in Asia, Africa and South America including working
with local governments of the affected areas from
the 2011 East Japan earthquake and tsunami. He
brings these experiences to support the activities of
DRP and to develop and strengthen the collaborative
partnership between JICA and SPC with programs and
projects. Shohei aims to seize the opportunities of the
3rd World Conference and the PALM7 to scale up the
collaborative partnerships between Japan, SPC and
Pacific partners.
Japan’s contribution to disaster reduction in the Pacific
Unosumai District, Kamaishi City, Iwate Prefecture where the whole coastal neighbourhood was wiped out by the East Japan
earthquake and tsunami in March 2011
Annual community disaster drill conducted at public primary
school