PROMOTINGBOSAITHESPIRITOF TOHOKU TO CREATE A BETTER,SAFER WORLD

The World BOSAI Forum—to beheld from March 10 to 12, 2023—hastaken place about once every two years
since 2017. People from some 40
countries and regions around theworld will gather to discuss various
bosai solutions. Use of unique Tohoku
recovery mascots (bottom right), awalking tour of the disaster-affectedareas in 2021(top left), and other suchfriendly touches full of local color haveadded to the attraction of the forum inthe past. THE WORLD BOSAI FORUM

The World BOSAI Forum, an international conference on bosai—a Japanese term referring to countermeasuresagainst natural disasters at all stages, from prevention and mitigation to post-disaster management andreconstruction—will be held in March in Sendai, one of the cities struck by the Great East Japan Earthquake. We
look at the forum’s focus, rooted in the lessons learned from that disaster, and its message to the world.
Japan has been afflicted throughout history bynatural disasters, creating original terms related tothese events—such as tsunami and sabō—that are
now understood globally. And recently, anotherJapanese word—bosai—has emerged as an importantconcept drawing attention. “Bosai has a wide rangeof meanings, from disaster prevention and mitigation
to post-disaster management and reconstruction.
There’s no word like it in English,” says Professor
ONO Yuichi of Tohoku University’s International

Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS). “Itessentially means building systems that are resilient
to disasters. To that end, not only do we need toorganize post-disaster responses, but we should
also prepare ourselves in advance from multiple
perspectives. With the recent increase in natural
disasters worldwide, we want to spread the conceptof bosai internationally.”
The third ever World BOSAI Forum will be held inMarch in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, to deepen

discussion on bosai and further share the concept withthe world. The forum will bring together individuals
and organizations from across the globe—including
researchers, companies, NGOs, and others—todiscuss a broad range of bosai-related topics, from thelatest technological advancements to climate change
impacts. But with its focus on practical knowledge
and solutions, the forum differs from typicalacademic conferences. The reason for such a focus
lies in the lessons learned from the Great East Japan
Earthquake that struck many parts of the Tohoku
region, including Sendai City, in 2011. “Japanhas been collecting disaster data and developing
countermeasures since the early days, including
publishing an annual White Paper on Disaster
Management since 1963. Its countermeasures andlevel of knowledge are considered among the bestin the world. However, despite all those efforts, theextensive damage caused by the giant earthquake
and tsunami of 2011 came as an enormous shock tothose of us working in the field. It was a turning pointfor Japan, making us concentrate more on actual
practice,” says Ono, the founder of the forum.
Since the earthquake, efforts have accelerated inthe Tohoku region that are leading international
movements toward bolstering disaster risk
reduction. In 2012, Tohoku University in Sendai
established IRIDeS with the aim of creating an
academic framework for studying practical disastermanagement utilizing bosai. Sendai was chosen tohost the Third UN World Conference on Disaster
Risk Reduction in 2015, which adopted the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030
After earning his doctoratein the United States
specializing in tornado
disaster research, Professor
ONO Yuichi of Tohoku
University’s International
Research Institute ofDisaster Science wasengaged in designinginternational disaster risk
reduction policies at UN
institutions. His experiencein 2011 as a volunteer in
one of the areas affected bythe Great East Japan
Earthquake convinced him to move back to Japan and dedicate the rest of hislife to bosai efforts, continuing to work on improving disaster readinessinternationally. THE WORLD BOSAI FORUM

Left: Sendai—the host city of the World BOSAI Forum—is rich ingreenery, with a population of 1.09 million in Miyagi Prefecture. The city
has been frequently afflicted throughout its history by natural disasters,from typhoons to floods and tsunami. AFLO
Right: Following the March 2011 earthquake, disaster-affected areas haveintroduced a “multiple-defense” system that combines several methods tomitigate disaster risks. For example, Sendai, in addition to building
embankments and planting windbreaks in coastal areas, has constructedelevated roads that can function as embankments. CITY OF SENDAI

as the first such agreement to set specific global
targets. To achieve those targets, IRIDeS establishedthe Global Centre for Disaster Statistics. Along with
monitoring the disaster damage statistics of countries
around the world, the center attempts to propose
investments needed in risk reduction tailored toeach country. The World BOSAI Forum evaluates
the progress of the Sendai Framework and makes
concrete proposals.
Another distinguishing feature of the forum is
its openness to citizen participation. Anyone whoregisters can join the forum, which is designed tobe people friendly and, in the past, has included
presentations on stockpiling food and related
activities by students, as well as a walking tour ofdisaster-affected areas. The lessons of the 2011 disasterare very much alive within such offerings as well.
Ono, who volunteered his time and efforts after thedisaster in order to interview affected residents, foundthat while many of those on the coast had evacuatedto safety thanks to their heightened awareness, quite
a few living more inland had hesitated to evacuate
and thus failed to escape in time. To prevent such a
tragedy from ever occurring again, continuous efforts
must be made to raise public awareness—that is thestrong belief incorporated within the forum.
Ono believes that the fact of having organized theforum cooperatively with local citizens helps delivera more powerful message on the necessity of bosai,
from the perspective of those directly involved, tocountries that need to prepare countermeasures
themselves. “Nobody else in the world should haveto go through the same horrible experiences that wedid—such strong thoughts will be conveyed via thewords of those who personally bore the effects ofthe disaster. We hope to continue sending out sucha message, grounded in the perspective of individual
citizens, and realize a disaster-resilient world.”