Top > What's up around the Prime Minister > July, 2005

The 14th Meeting of the Central Disaster Prevention Council Tuesday, July 26, 2005 JAPANESE The 14th Meeting of the Central Disaster Prevention Council was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence. At the meeting, the council decided to revise the Basic Disaster Management Plan, which outlines the direction of Japan's measures against disasters, to include the development of a national campaign as a measure to alleviate the damages incurred from earthquakes, storms, flood disasters, and others. The council also decided to establish an expert committee comprised of representatives from the economic and academic circles as well as the consumer organizations in September to compile a medium-term report on the measures taken by the residents, corporations and regions by the end of the fiscal year. Furthermore, the council decided to list the priority items of disaster prevention measures in FY2006 and stipulate the policies for measures against disasters to be taken by relevant agencies, implementing disaster prevention measures in a prioritized manner. In closing the meeting, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi remarked, "It is important for the residents to engage in disaster prevention measures without apprehension and in an enjoyable manner. I expect the expert committee to achieve great results for the promotion of a national campaign that has been decided to be established today by considering various measures. Furthermore, in the wake of the earthquake that struck the Tokyo region on the 23rd of this month, there were incidents such as delay in the dissemination of information on the magnitude of the earthquake, people trapped in elevators, delay in the recovery of transportation systems and more. Going forward, I expect the government's efforts to place even more focus on measures to promote the national campaign as well as to enhance the buildings' resistance to earthquakes."