Holding of the World Ministerial Conference on Disaster Reduction in Tohoku

July 2, 2012
Japanese

On Tuesday, July 3 and Wednesday, 4, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan will jointly host the "World Ministerial Conference on Disaster Reduction in Tohoku" in the three disaster-stricken prefectures in the Tohoku region, which include Sendai City, with related domestic and international organizations. Representatives of approximately 100 countries and international organizations will be attending this conference.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Minister for Foreign Affairs Koichiro Gemba will be attending and giving remarks at an opening ceremony to be held at the Sendai International Center in Sendai City on July 3. Foreign Minister Gemba will be serving as chairman at the plenary meeting that will take place following the opening ceremony, and he will be taking part in some of the panel discussion proceedings as a facilitator.
This conference is aimed at contributing to building resilient societies through sharing experiences and lessons learned from the recent large-scale natural disasters in the world including the Great East Japan Earthquake among the international community, and through discussing issues related to disaster reduction from various aspects including preparedness, emergency response, and new challenges such as urbanization.

(*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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