Photo/Illutration Aki Kawasaki, a guide at a museum devoted to the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

SENDAI—An international conference on disaster preparedness will be held for the first time in three years and four months in this city that suffered damage in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

Disaster response experts from Japan and abroad will discuss the global challenges at the third World Bosai Forum scheduled for March 10-12 at the Sendai International Center in Aoba Ward.

Around 1,000 participants from the private and public sectors as well as industry and academia are expected to attend.

Many forum sessions are expected to be accessible to the general public.

The World Bosai Forum was established as a biennial event organized primarily by Tohoku University and Sendai city, and based on the accomplishments of the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in 2015 in Sendai.

The forum has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The opening speech on March 10 will be delivered by Aki Kawasaki, who was a junior high school student when her hometown of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, was devastated by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.

Kawasaki currently serves as a guide at a museum devoted to the catastrophe in Kamaishi.

International disaster preparation awards will be presented to exceptional programs in and outside Japan during the World Bosai Forum.

In the three-day event, 30 open meetings will be arranged for discussions on a range of topics, including an anti-disaster picture book project, evacuation from tsunami, women’s leadership, and businesses involved in disaster management.

The latest emergency goods and technologies will be exhibited at the World Bosai Expo on the sidelines of the forum.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was adopted at the U.N. conference eight years ago. It sets a global anti-disaster course of action for the period through 2030.

A midterm report on the framework will be worked out at the forum.

Proposals will be presented at the forum to Mami Mizutori, chief of the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and special representative of the U.N. secretary-general for disaster risk reduction.

People wishing to attend the public sessions must register beforehand. Applications can be made for free on the World Bosai Forum’s website.

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