From Friday, March 10, to Sunday, March 12, 2023, the “World BOSAI Forum”—the third time of the event in the fourth year—was held in Sendai. PACIFIC CONSULTANTS endorsed the forum, organized sessions and exhibitions at the event as a corporate sponsor.
The World BOSAI Forum is an international citizens' forum that originated in Japan and collaborates with the Swiss World BOSAI Forum (the Davos Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction) to bring together disaster risk reduction concerned people from industries, governments, educational institutes, citizens in Japan and overseas. Based on the four priority actions defined by Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: (1) Understanding disaster risk, (2) Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, (3) Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, and (4) Improving preparedness for effective disaster response and "Build Back Better" in the recovery and reconstruction process, the project aims to disseminate disaster risk reduction into policies, societies, and cultures around the world (mainstreaming disaster risk reduction).
INDEX
- Our mission is to contribute to the development of social infrastructure through our technical expertise and human capabilities
- PACIFIC CONSULTANTS will contribute to the SDGs through BOSAI
- Considering inclusive disaster prevention from the perspectives of pre-disaster recovery-oriented urban planning and disaster case management
- BOSAI from Tohoku to the World: Our employees also contributed as part of the forum secretariat
Our mission is to contribute to the development of social infrastructure through our technical expertise and human capabilities
At the opening, our President Osamu OMOTO, took the stage and delivered a speech in which he addressed the event. Following greetings from the head of the public sector, he introduced our company's track record of contributions to disaster prevention and reconstruction as a private company and as a construction consulting firm, and also shared his own experience of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and the contributions of our employees, including those at our Tohoku branch, to Great East Japan Earthquake. Finally, he expressed his determination, stating, "Our mission is to contribute to the development of social infrastructure with our technical expertise and human capabilities in order to protect everyone's safe, secure and comfortable lives from natural disasters."
Opening Speakers List
| Mayor of Sendai City | Kazuko KOORI |
| President of Tohoku University | Hideo ONO |
| Governor of Miyagi Prefecture | Yoshihiro MURAI (VTR) |
| Director for Public Awareness and Collaboration, Councillor's Office for Disaster Management, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan | Takeo MURAKAMI |
| Special Advisor for Disaster Risk Reduction, JICA | Kimio TAKEYA |
| President of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) | Kazuhito HASHIMOTO (VTR) |
| Chief Executive of Association of Pacific Rim Universities | Thomas Schneider |
| Pacific Consultants Co., Ltd. President and Representative Director | Osamu OMOTO |
PACIFIC CONSULTANTS will contribute to the SDGs through BOSAI
At the forum venue, an EXPO was held over three days, showcasing the activities and products of companies related to disaster prevention, as well as the activities of non-profit organizations and groups. Our company also presented our business and technologies that contribute to Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (*1). At our booth, we presented our technologies as part of four initiatives that contribute to the SDGs through BOSAI, and we also featured a small-scale hydraulic model (micro-model) that allowed visitors to actually run water to see how river flooding would occur, as well as videos of reconstruction and development plans for disaster-stricken areas. Many people visited our booth, and we were pleased to see the large turnout.
PACIFIC CONSULTANTS' initiatives to contribute to the SDGs through BOSAI
We aim to create a society where no one is left behind by contributing to the implementation of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
| Priority of Action 1 | Understand the disaster risks and comprehend the dangers. ―Even in sudden rain, you can rest assured... Doshaburu®』 ―When you still don't understand even after looking at a hazard map... ShiraBel™』 |
|---|---|
| Priority of Action 2 | Strengthen disaster prevention organizations responding to disaster and incorporate the perspective of BOSAI (Disaster Prevention) into countermeasures. ―Disaster Prevention DX (Optimizing and enhancing disaster prevention operations with digital technology) |
| Priority of Action 3 | Promote investment in disaster prevention and mitigation to enhance resilience. ―Achieve an urban sustainability and decarbonization by smart cities utilizing advanced technologies |
| Priority of Action 4 | Prepare for emergency response during disasters and achieve the build back better. ―Tohoku reconstruction's initiatives |
Considering inclusive disaster prevention from the perspectives of pre-disaster recovery-oriented urban planning and disaster case management
On the second day of the forum, a session hosted by our company (in collaboration with the Center for Environmental and Disaster Prevention Research at Tokushima University) was held. The session focused on Tokushima Prefecture’s preparations for the Nankai Trough earthquake. It explored the concept of “pre-disaster recovery”—which aims to minimize damage caused by a massive earthquake—by sharing the actual initiatives undertaken by Tokushima Prefecture and its municipalities, as well as the challenges they face, in order to seek solutions.
Session
[From Tokushima] Considering inclusive disaster prevention from the perspectives of pre-disaster recovery-oriented urban planning and disaster case management
Program- Opening remarks and overview- Masanori ISHIKAWA (Executive Officer, Director General of Land Infrastructure Div. of our company)
- Lecture 1: About the Tokushima Prefecture's Reconstruction Guidelines- Makoto BANDO (Director, Southern Tokushima Prefectural Government)
Lecture 2: Pre-disaster recovery initiatives in Minami Town- Kazuhisa IWAKA (Academic Researcher at Center for Human and Regional Co-creation, Tokushima University) - Panel discussion: Considering inclusive disaster prevention from the perspectives of pre-disaster recovery-oriented urban planning and disaster case management
Moderator: Yasunori KOZUKI (Director, Environmental Disaster Prevention Research Center, Tokushima University)
Panelists: Kazuhisa IWAKA (mentioned above) / Makoto BANDO (mentioned above) / Shinji IIDA (General Manager of Resilience Promotion Sec., Disaster Prevention Dept., Digital Service Div. of our company) / Satoko OKANO (Executive Officer, General Manager of Internal Audit Office of our company/Director of Mutsuzawa Smart Wellness Town Co., Ltd. (at that time)
The lecture introduced the "Tokushima Prefecture's Reconstruction Guidelines" as a case study of "pre-disaster recovery" to achieve recovery from large-scale disasters. It also presented actual pre-disaster recovery initiatives in Minami Town, Tokushima Prefecture, including case studies of housing development on high ground that anticipates post-disaster urban planning, and pre-disaster recovery dioramas created by elementary school students. Following these case studies from Tokushima Prefecture, Shinji IIDA (General Manager of Resilience Promotion Sec., Disaster Prevention Dept., Digital Service Div. and Satoko OKANO (Executive Officer, General Manager of Internal Audit Office / Director of Mutsuzawa Smart Wellness Town Co., Ltd. (at the time)) took the stage for the panel discussion.
In response to the moderator's question, "How should we consider the SDGs' concepts of 'leaving no one behind' and 'inclusivity' in the context of disaster prevention and recovery?", it was stated that lessons learned from Great East Japan Earthquake, such as the prolonged recovery due to delays in consensus building after the disaster and the resulting population decline, highlight the importance of "showing the desired state of recovery and the target recovery level and timeframe for the region before a disaster strikes."
Furthermore, there was lively discussion on the direction of proactive disaster prevention and inclusive disaster prevention, including the necessity of "aiming for zero people facing difficulties in rebuilding their lives through "Disaster Case Management (DCM) (*2)," which focuses on the reconstruction of individual life. This session served as a case study to widely disseminate to the world how our company and Tokushima Prefecture's joint efforts in disaster prevention and proactive recovery can contribute to achieving the SDGs.
(From left: Mr. IIDA, General Manager of Section of our company; Mr. IWAKA, Researcher at Tokushima University; Mr. BANDO, Director at Tokushima Prefecture; Mr. ISHIKAWA, Executive Officer of our company; Mr. KOZUKI, Director of the Center at Tokushima University; and Ms. OKANO, Executive Officer of our company)
BOSAI from Tohoku to the World: Our employees also contributed as part of the forum secretariat
The unsung hero who supported this three-day forum was Masashi SAKAMOTO, who was seconded from our company's Disaster Prevention Dept. to Tohoku University (his secondment ended in March 2023). Regarding the forum's main message, "From Tohoku to the world of disaster prevention," he said, "It's been 10 years since the earthquake, but I put into it the feeling that we must never forget the disaster." From fiscal year 2023, Soraya ONO will be seconded from our company's Land Infrastructure Div. to Tohoku University, and will continue to work in cooperation with Tohoku University to contribute to the realization of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
What he's holding is "THE TSUNAMI WALK," a storybook about the earthquake and Tsunami, co-produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World BOSAI Forum. The story of the "World BOSAI Walk Tohoku +10" (an event where participants walked 800 kilometers along the Tohoku coast to spread the message of recovery to the world), which SAKAMOTO and others conducted in the spring of 2022, has been turned into a picture book by the UN and distributed at the venue.
◆Our initiatives at World BOSAI Forum are also described below.
"Leaving No One Behind in BOSAI -PACIFIC CONSULTANTS x World BOSAI Forum 2023"
*1: Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: An international guideline for disaster risk reduction until 2030, adopted by UN member states at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai in March 2015. It was approved by the UN General Meeting in June 2015.
*2: Disaster case management: An initiative that supports the "recovery of living lives" by providing individualized support, such as information provision and human resources assistance tailored to the specific challenges faced by each disaster victim, while working closely with them. It is characterized by coordinating support through collaboration among multiple organizations and obtaining cooperation from professionals and specialized fields to help disaster victims recover their lives. In Japan, it was first fully implemented after Great East Japan Earthquake.
