Japan, China and South Korea to strengthen cooperation to reduce disasters

Meeting in Kobe, Japan, this weekend, China, Japan and South Korea agreed to collaborate on disaster preparedness and management by sharing information on measures such as improving earthquake resistance of buildings and facilities.

"The three countries are close neighbours and share the same risks. It is imperative for us to cooperate closely on disaster management," said Luo Pingfei, China's vice minister of civil affairs at the First Trilateral Heads of Government Agency Meeting on Disaster Management, held 31 October 2009. The meeting also included Seiji Maehara, Japan's state minister in charge of disaster prevention and Park Yeon Soo, administrator of South Korea's National Emergency Management Agency.

On the occasion of the trilateral meeting, the Government of Japan, Korea and United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction Secretariat (UNISDR) launched the 2009 UNISDR Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction, in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, with cooperation from the Government of China. The document is a joint product of the Cabinet Office of Japan (CAO) and the National Emergency Management Agency of Korea (NEMA), who respectively developed the Japanese and Korean versions of the Terminology in cooperation with the UNISDR.