Press Releases
The High School Students Summit on “World Tsunami Awareness Day” 2025 in Sendai
From November 27 to 28, the High School Students Summit on “World Tsunami Awareness Day” 2025 in Sendai was held, co-hosted by Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and others. High school students from 10 countries, including Japan (61 domestic high school students and 27 overseas high school students) participated in the summit.
- High school students learned about the history of tsunamis in Japan and efforts for disaster risk reduction through the summit, and also engaged in discussions divided into three thematic areas: "Build Back Better," "Multi-Stakeholder participation in disaster risk reduction," and "Passing on lessons learned and fostering a culture of disaster resilience". Finally, the discussions from workshops were summarized, and the Summit Declaration was announced as the overall achievement of the summit.
- On November 27, at the opening ceremony and reception, Ms. ERI Arfiya, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, delivered a speech on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, touching on disasters such as the Great East Japan Earthquake, and emphasizing the importance of disaster risk reduction in achieving sustainable development. She expressed her hope that this summit would be an opportunity to strengthen the "Kizuna” (bonds) among participating high school students.
- High school students are expected to bring back the knowledge and experiences gained through this summit to their own countries and to play an active role as leaders in the field of disaster risk reduction in the future.
(Reference1) “World Tsunami Awareness Day”
In December 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution, co-sponsored by 142 countries, including Japan, to designate November 5 as “World Tsunami Awareness Day” in order to raise awareness of and promote countermeasures against tsunami risks.
(Reference2) Participating countries of high school students
Japan, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam (a total of 10 countries)