overall economic and social systems of the country. Many of the developing countries are particularly vulnerable to disasters, and therefore suffer extremely serious damage. Also, as the poor population often suffers more extensive damage and may end up as disaster refugees, prolonged secondary damage such as the deterioration of sanitary conditions and food shortages is a major issue to tackle.

Furthermore, humankind is sometimes powerless against the fury of Mother Nature, such as large-scale earthquakes, regardless of measures to prevent serious disasters. Such large-scale disasters require swift relief operations for a large number of victims, but some countries cannot deal with the situation on their own. In those cases, international cooperation is important.

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Based on the advanced expertise and technology acquired through past experiences with disasters, Japan is strongly aware of the importance of the disaster prevention and post-disaster reconstruction sector as well as emergency assistance and is promoting international cooperation activities. In particular, at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Kobe in January 2005 the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015 was adopted as the basic guideline for disaster reduction activities by the international community over the following 10 years, and Japan is promoting its worldwide implementation in cooperation with the UN. At the conference Japan announced its Initiative for Disaster Reduction, which represents Japan's basic policies regarding cooperation for disaster reduction through official aid. Japan also expressed its intent to continue to actively support the self-help efforts by developing countries toward building a disaster-resilient society through institution building, human resource development, development of economic and social infrastructure and other measures. Japan has been actively implementing the initiative (FY2005: US$840 million, FY2006: US$820 million).

Furthermore, at the Asian-African Summit in 2005 Japan announced that it would be providing more than US2.5 billion in assistance over the next five years for the disaster prevention sector. Through the Grant Aid for Disaster Prevention and Reconstruction, created to enhance disaster prevention and post-disaster reconstruction assistance, Japan in FY2007 decided to extend support for four regions and seven countries. The support includes, for example, a project for the construction of a weather radar, a weather radar tower and other facilities in Moulvibazar of northeast Bangladesh. $ ^{61} $ The project aims at improving accuracy in flood forecasting and realizing appropriate announcements of forecasts and warnings on storms and flash floods. As for Bangladesh, Japan installed a weather radar in Cox’s Bazar in FY2006. With these projects, the cyclone surveillance capacity of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department will be further enhanced. Meanwhile, a large cyclone hit Bangladesh in November 2007, and caused great damage mainly to the southern coastal area of the country. In response, Japan provided ¥426 million in Emergency Grant Aid for the cyclone victims. Emergency disaster relief aid in FY2007 included Emergency Grant Aid to the Solomon Islands (earthquake, tsunami) and Mexico (large-scale flood, landslide).

For Thailand, which suffered huge losses of about 8,500 dead and missing from the great Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, Japan offered technical cooperation to the National Disaster Warning Centre and other institutions for two years from FY2006. The purpose of the cooperation is disaster response capacity building with enhanced collaboration among central ministries and agencies, local administrations and communities. The outcome of the cooperation includes the white paper on disaster prevention, published for the first time in Thailand, the revision of the National Disaster Prevention Plan, and the development of e-learning materials. At a village level, a community disaster prevention manual and other materials have been compiled, and used at workshops and other opportunities to build the disaster response capacity of villagers.

## Japan Disaster Relief Team

Japan is prepared to swiftly extend emergency relief aid in response to requests from the government of a disaster-hit country or an international organization in case of a large-scale disaster overseas. There are four types of teams: Search and Rescue Team to search and rescue disaster victims; Medical Team to provide medical services for disaster victims; Expert Team to give advice and instruction on first aid measures, etc.; and SDF units to be dispatched when there is a particular need. As for material aid, Japan has emergency relief goods to be swiftly supplied to disaster-hit countries in case of a large-scale disaster. Specifically, warehouses located at four overseas points stockpile goods necessary for victims' livelihoods, such as tents, power generators and blankets.