Announcements

Nearly 200 participants from various Japanese government agencies will take part in five days of disaster relief training October 27-31 at the Hyogo Prefecture Emergency Management and Training Center.

The personnel, drawn from JICA, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the national police agency, fire department and coast guard will attend briefings and lectures and participate in comprehensive simulation exercises which replicate conditions they might encounter in the aftermath of an earthquake, flood or other natural disasters. The exercise is held annually.

The participants will likely deploy in the future as members of the Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) system which sends medical and rescue teams, as well as emergency supplies, to countries around the world which have suffered a natural disaster.

The first Japan medical team (JMT) was formed in 1979 and the Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) Law was enacted in 1987. Teams were recently dispatched to Myanmar in the wake of Cyclone Nargis and to China following a massive earthquake in that country’s Sichuan Province.