Summary - Protecting Lives from Earthquake and Tsunami Disasters(1) Opening Ceremony
1) Opening and Welcome Remarks
Mr. Yuzo Sakamoto, Chief Executive ofthe Building Research Institute (BRI)
welcomed the symposium participants. He
noted that in 1962 BRI set up theDepartment of International Earthquake
Engineering Studies, and took over theInternational

Training

ProgramEarthquake

Engineering,

forjointlyorganized by UNESCO and Japan. To date,
1,539 trainees from 97 countries havecompleted the course, and most now havepivotal roles in government, researchand educational institutions. Additionally, since 2006 the master degree has been conferredto those trainees who have successfully completed the course, in collaboration with theNational Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS).
From 2007, with support from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism(MLIT), BRI restarted a collaborative partnership with UNESCO, and launched theInternational Platform for Reducing Earthquake Disasters (IPRED). Going forward, BRI incollaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have established anetwork of nine countries and their organizations engaged in earthquake disaster management.
Representatives from all of these organizations as well as famous lecturers have gathered
for this symposium, offering a rare and precious opportunity to exchange views andexpertise.
Mr. Keiichi Tsunekawa, Vice President ofGRIPS

thankedtheparticipants

forattending the symposium. He remarked
that while the immediate motive for thesymposium was the Great East Japan
Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, there
have been a series of such disasters inrecent years, in which tens or hundredsof thousands of lives were lost in aninstant. The theme of the symposium isinvestigating

howtodeepen

international cooperation to protect
lives from earthquake and tsunami disasters in the future.
GRIPS has been engaged in research and education on disaster management, offering a one-yearmasters program on disaster management policy in 2005, in cooperation with BRI, the Public
Works Research Institute (PWRI) and JICA. Each year the program is offered to around 40

students from developing countries. GRIPS also published two policy proposals forreconstruction after the 2011 disaster, and is engaged in research projects and organizing
lectures, seminars and symposiums. This April, GRIPS has started a one-year masters programfor Japanese students.
2) Guest SpeechMr.

Toshiyuki

Inoue,

DeputyDirector-General of the Housing Bureauof MLIT expressed his gratitude to theparticipants

andorganizers

ofthesymposium. He noted that Japan has
experienced a number of devastating
earthquakes,

withdiffering

primarycauses of loss of life, through fire,
collapsing buildings, and tsunami. The
extent of damage also differs dependingon factors such as the time of day thatthe earthquake takes place. There should
therefore be diverse countermeasures for dealing with earthquakes. Additionally, adisproportionate number of elderly people lost their lives in these earthquakes, showingthat better measures must be taken to protect the most vulnerable.
In the Japan earthquake of 2011 there were a relatively low number of casualties frombuilding collapse, due to improvements in structural standards introduced in 1981. However
there are lessons to be learned including damage to buildings due to the long period ofground shaking, and how resistant buildings are to tsunami. Countermeasures must also be
put in place against the liquefaction of reclaimed land and the destruction of elevatorsand escalators and non-structural building materials.

(2) Keynote Lecture1) Keynote Lecture 1 "Future of Seismology"
Mr.

KazuoOike,

DirectoroftheInternational Institute for Advanced
Studies (IIAS) and Former President ofKyoto University began his keynote bynoting that East Asia has a long historyof earthquakes, with the oldest recorded
earthquake dating back to 1831 BC in theShandong province of China. Mr. Oike
wentontodetailthehistoryofearthquakes and seismology in East Asia,
based on which he suggested that every
300 to 600 years a very large earthquake
occurs somewhere in the world. East Asia is now in an era of high seismological activity.
Given that, international cooperation is very important in and around the Pacific region.
In Japan, good records and analysis of earthquakes have been kept for many years. It has
been predicted that western Japan enters an active period every 100 years, alternating withquiet periods. Modern seismology in Japan dates back to 1880, when the Seismological Society
was founded and the Japanese government hired foreign scholars to investigate an earthquakein Yokohama.
Looking at the future of seismology, Mr. Oike highlighted a number of issues to be tackled
following the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, including: controversial
extreme predictions being made for future earthquakes; ineffective use of the early warning
system; limited supercomputing capacity for simulation; the unexpected chain-reaction ofmultiple earthquakes; the destructive impact of the tsunami on the Fukushima nuclear power
plants; effective education of evacuation procedures; monitoring changes to land structure;and the need for greater understanding of the physical mechanism of precursor earthquakes.

2) Keynote Lecture 2 "UNESCO’s Roles and Strategies for Reducing Earthquake and Tsunami
Disasters"
Mr. Badaoui Rouhban, Director of theUnit for Natural Disasters, NaturalSciences Sector at UNESCO began byexplaining that UNESCO has the role ofpromoting knowledge, education, science
andculture,

as

well

as

assistinggovernments in finding solutions to theproblems they face including lack ofeducation

systems,poor

culturaldevelopment and lack of water resources.
Globally there is a trend of increase innaturaldisasters,

notbecause

thehazards are increasing but because the vulnerability to those disasters is increasing. Andwhile there is a decrease in related deaths in developed countries, poor countries are paying
the highest toll, and so the United Nations should help these poorer countries to be better
prepared. Such disasters can also have knock-on effects beyond the local region. While theinternational community actively responds to disasters in providing relief, rehabilitation
and reconstruction, there is little investment in mitigation and preparedness, leading toa vicious “disaster cycle.” Measures to reduce vulnerability include better risk assessment,
prevention, preparedness and emergency response.
UNESCO assists with the establishment of international and regional centers as well as
tsunami warning systems. UNESCO also assists at the national level, such as working with
the Haitian government following the 2010 Haiti Earthquake in various aspects of disasterrecovery, including education, rehabilitation of the coastal warning system, and trainingof masons for earthquake-resistant construction. UNESCO also works through a number ofprograms including: IPRED with nine member countries; RELEMR in the extended Mediterranean
region; RELSAR in the South Asia Region; ICL and IMEWS internationally; and DIPECHO inCentral America.
UNESCO’s education sector is involved in the promotion of school safety, the developmentof educational materials and the use of indigenous knowledge for disaster reduction.
UNESCO’s culture sector uses some UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Geoparks as pilot areas
for implementing activities for disaster reduction. Finally, ethics and human rights
aspects of disasters are handled by UNESCO’s social science sector.