Comparison of Disaster Management System
between Japan and Mongolia, and Lessons
Learned in Japan
Prepared by B.Bolormaa, Asian DisasterReduction CenterContents
Country profile
Government System
Disaster conditions
Disaster Management System
Lessons learned in Japan
Weaknesses
Actions to be undertaken to improve disastermanagement in Mongolia
Recommendations

1

Country profile
Japan
Land Area: 378060 sq.km
Population: 126.926.000 people
High developed country with heavy
industrial economy
High developed InfrastructureHigh level of government income

Mongolia
An extremely large size country:
1.564.116 sq.km
A small population:2407500 people
An agricultural economy based on
pastoral herding: Horses, sheep,cattle, goats and camels
Poor deteriorating infrastructure
Low level of government income;and a high level of national needs

Government system
Japan’s Administrative System
3 levels of Government
National Government
47 Prefectural Government
Largest Prefecture: Tokyo 12.1 million
Smallest Prefecture: Tottori 0.6 million

3218 Cities, Towns, Villages
Municipal Government

Mongolia’s Administrative System
Government of Mongolia
Local Administration:
22 Administration of Aimags
Largest aimag: Ulaanbaatar city 812.5 thousandSmallest aimag: Govisumber 12.4 thousand

340 Administration of Soums and Districts
1658 Administration Baghs and khoroos(as of 2001 )2

International Comparison of Average Temperatures of January andJuly (Celsius)
40
30
25.4

30.9

26.6

20
10

17.3
5.8

0

19

18.4

29.1
26.7

26.3
17.5

14.2

9.8

January4

2.1

July-7.5-10-20-3.6-20-30

Land Use
JAPANLand forbuilding 4.7

Water
Area,
Rivers andChannels
3.6
Roads 3.4

Others 8.2

Farm land
13

Water
MONGOLIA
ResourcesLand
1.1
Reserve Land
3.3
Cities,Villages
Forestand other11.7Settlements
Land0.3
Transportation
and Network
Land
0.2

Grass
Land 0.7
Forest 66.4

AgriculturalLand
83.5

3

Comparison of rainfalls in Mongolia versus other countries
Worldwide average

973

Mongolia

222

Japan

1714

United Kingdom

1064
1500

Nepal

Rainfallmm/year100

Saudi Arabia

760

USA
460

Australia
0200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

Source: MLIT, Japan

Disaster Management System
High level of development of Disaster Management System in Japan
Beginning stage of Disaster Management System in Mongolia

Legal Foundation
Strategic Planning
Institutional Arrangements
Capacity Development

4Legal Foundation
JAPANMONGOLIA

Disaster Countermeasures
Basic Act,1961
Disaster Relief Act,1947
Large-scale Earthquake
Countermeasures
Act,1978Law on Civil Defence,1994
Government Resolution#276, 1990
The Law on Forests andSteppe Fires, 1996
National Program to Assist
the Protection of livestockfrom Drought and Dzud,
2001

Strategic Planning

JAPAN

Basic Natural Disaster
Management Plan for
Disaster Prevention
The Disaster Management
Operation Plan (Sectoral)
The local Disaster
Management PlanMONGOLIA

National disaster
response plan (NMRP)(One of the objectives of UNDP
DMM project is to renovate theNMRP plan)5Institutional Arrangement
JAPANMONGOLIA
National level Prime Minister,
National level State PermanentCentral Disaster Management
Emergency Commission , StateCouncil,
DesignatedBoard for Civil Defense andAdministrative
Organs,relevant Ministries and agencies
Designated Public Corporations
Local Level Permanent Emergency
Prefectural Government level
Commissions at aimag and soumGovernor, Prefectural Disasterlevel, Civil Defense Staff andManagementCouncil,
Designated Local Administrative
professional services of theOrgans, Designated Local
administrative offices of the capital,
Public Corporations
aimags, districts and soums
Municipal level Mayors of Cities,
Towns and Villages, Municipal
Disaster Management Council

Institutional Arrangement
JAPANMONGOLIA
The disaster management
During emergencies SBCD
Office Functions under directoperates
underthecoordination of the Prime
directorship of SPEC. SBCD is
Minister and independent
entitled with limited power toMinistry (Minister of State formonitor other Ministries andDisaster Management ).
agencies due to the status of
the regulatory agency ofMinistry of Defense.

6Institutional Arrangement
MONGOLIA
JAPANThe forest and steppe fire fighting policy wasFire Defense Agency under Ministry of disrupted in the 1990’s, because the tasks are divided
Public Management, Home Affairs,
into 4 organizations:
Post and Telecommunications.
i). The task of wild fire suppression is charged with FireFighting department (Government’s implementory
agency under Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs )ii) If wild fire turns into fire disaster the task ofsuppression is charged with the Disaster mitigation
battalion of the SBCD (Government’s regulatory agency
under Ministry of Defense)iii) The task of wild fire prevention is charged with theMinistry of Nature and Environment.
iv) The determination of wild fire damage is charged
with the working group which is appointed by Governorsof aimags, soums, and districts.

The National Government

The Prime Minister isthe Head of the Cabinet andis the Chairman of theCentral Disaster ManagementCouncil7

Capacity Development
Disaster Information System
Early Estimation system (EES)
Emergency Measures SupportSystem (EMS)
DM in high school
DM in elementary school

The communication tools of SBCD arehigh frequency radio and telephonelines. Regular connection between
central office and aimag’s CD Staffs .
M H E Monitoring network(Earlywarning of disasters)
Natural hazard warning system
Professional Disaster management
personnel is to be trained at theDefense University from 2001
CDTraining of Students of all
universities, colleges and secondaryschool 9th grade students8Lessons learned in Japan
Importance of disaster preparedness
Importance of cooperation among disaster management
organizations
Importance of community and regional disaster response
capabilities
Importance of making cities disaster resistant

Government Organisations visited

Hyogo Prefecture’s Revised
Disaster Management measures

Cabinet Office of Japan

9

Ministries and Organisations visited

NHK The broadcasting room

Ministry of Land, Infrastucture and Transport

Agencies and Organizations visited

Disaster Relief Activities of JICA

JMA staff is explaining their working
system in various stages

10Broadcast on Preparedness for disasterin daily life

Participants of JICA seminar on
Disaster Management JFY2003

Tachikawa National Disaster
Management Headquarter

Tokyo Fire Department,
The 8-th Fire District HQ115-th ADRC International Meeting
Future activities of ADRC and Guidance (Articles ofADRC were approved by member countries)
Objectives and Strategies for Implementation of theTotal Disaster Risk Management Approach
Government-NGO collaboration for Disaster Reductionand Response
Accumulation and sharing of Disaster information andImpact Assessments: by use of GLIDE(Global IDEntifier)

ISDR Asian Meeting
Increasing public awareness to understand risk,
vulnerability and disaster reduction,
Promoting commitment of public authorities to disaster
reduction,
Stimulating interdisciplinary and inter-sectoralpartnerships, including the expansion of risk reduction
networks, andImproving scientific and technical knowledge about thecauses of natural disasters, as well as effects thatnatural hazards and related technological andenvironmental disasters have on societies.

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World Water Forum
Session: Living with risk –towards effective disaster reduction
An integrated , multi-hazard, inclusive approach to address vulnerability, risk
assessment and disaster management and implementation of the International
strategy for Disaster Reduction, is an essential element of a safer world in the 21-stcentury.
The integration of the reduction of risk and vulnerability, including risk assessment andrisk sharing, into water resources management policies and initiatives.
The encouragement and support to regional initiatives on risk reduction and promote
community-based disaster management planning by local authorities, including
educational activities and public awarenessThe encouragement of governments to address the problems created in urban areas,
the location of settlements in high risk areas and other man-made determinants ofdisasters.
In transboundary basins, the sharing of hydrometeorological data and information at aregional level to enable reliable forecasts is needed, as well as regional cooperation in
information sharing for disaster mitigation.

Public awareness in rural area

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Weaknesses
Legal Foundation (The current Law on Civil Defense doesn’t properly

differentiate between Civil Defense and Disaster Management, adoption of a new lawthat divided the duties and resources of forest and steppe fire fighting organization)

Strategic Planning (The ”secret” classification of the National Civil Defense

national plan in accordance with military regulations reduces the effectiveness of thecivil defense plan)

Institutional Arrangements (The integration of the SBCD into the Ministry ofDefense added complications and bureaucracy in the management of Civil Defense.)

Capacity Development (Disaster Management training system still has nottaken its final form, lack of advanced and high-tech rescue and communicationequipment, obsoleted earthquake observation equipment, lack of adequate training
and safety equipment for fire fighters.)

Actions to be undertaken to improve disaster management inMongolia
To change the content of Law on Civil Defense. Change it as Law on
Disaster Mitigation and Management.
To change the State Board for Civil Defense as National Agency for
Disaster Mitigation and Management under the Prime Minister
To prepare the annual government official report on DisasterCountermeasures and report to the State Great Hural (Parliament)
To renovate Disaster Management Plans involve all concerned agencies
and be exercised between all levels of Government and at the grassroots
level and incorporation of disaster risk reduction measures in development
programmes
To improve cooperation among disaster management organizations
To designate “Disaster Prevention Day” for improving Public AwarenessTo raise public awareness to understand disaster reduction and utilizationof mass media (Radio, TV, Radio FM)

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Actions to be undertaken to improve disaster management inMongolia
To provide search and rescue teams with advanced and high tech rescue,also communication equipment
To establish the Early Warning Systems in fire prone area - Fasterdetection means smaller fires, a need for fewer firefighters and greatly
reduces expenses associated with firefighting.
To establish local resource needed for preventing from the natural
disasters and recovering the damages
To establish the Disaster Management Information System and it’s
Delivery using GIS and IT technologies
To increase the number of disaster management classes and subjects atschools and universities, also need a training of disaster mitigationengineers
To establish the Disaster Prevention Center (Kyoto City Citizens disaster
Prevention Center, Kakogawa Disaster Prevention Center )To raise partnership between public, private, NGO and communities

Actions to be undertaken to improve disastermanagement in Mongolia
To combine the Geo-physical monitoring (earthquake observation) to theNational Agency for Meteorology, Hydrology and Environmental
Monitoring
To modify and improve hazard monitoring, disaster risk assessment andvulnerability analyses in all aimagsTo create a cooperative system amongst the farmers and herders in rural
areas
Centralize fire disaster mitigation and management activities under one
organization
To have international agreement and regulations for fire disaster, thatcross the national border
Organize the seismic resistance inspection buildings free of charge,
especially school buildings
In the next edition of Compendium of Environment Statistics of Mongolia
will include an information on disaster and disaster management15

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