Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held a meeting of the Central Disaster Prevention Council at the Prime Minister's Office.

Based on the mid-term report of the Council on Disaster Countermeasures Promotion, the meeting decided on the policy for immediate-term initiatives for enhancing and strengthening disaster countermeasures and the FY2012 Comprehensive Disaster Prevention Drills Outline.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address, "With the recent heavy snowfall that took the lives of more than 120 people as one example, there have been a series of natural disasters that have caused significant damage even after the Great East Japan Earthquake. I would like to first express my condolences and sympathy to those who lost their lives and those affected by the disaster.
Even now, there are concerns about the increasing signs of volcanic activity and about an inland earthquake hitting the Tokyo metropolitan area, and we must stay vigilant in the face of possible large-scale disasters. The urgent task is to conduct a thorough investigation of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and assuming that a disaster beyond our imagination can occur, enhance disaster countermeasures with a sense of urgency.
I would like to ask that active discussions take place in order to steadily promote disaster countermeasures and rebuild an enduring Japan."