19th Disaster Risk Management Seminar "Transforming Earthquakes and Disasters into a Safer Built Environment: The Case of Japan"

Building regulation has a crucial role to play in reducing disaster risk, providing healthy and safe environments for people to live and work. Japan is internationally recognized for its robust structural performance and improved seismic resistance technologies, and this achievement is the result of a nearly a century of incremental improvements and learning. Japan has learned from each disaster, and constantly updates building regulations as well as implementing mechanisms to make cities safer. While Japan’s long journey still continues, Japan’s incremental and context specific approach offers key lessons for other countries seeking to mitigate disaster risk in the built environment.

This seminar will launch a new World Bank publication ‘Converting Disaster Experience into a Safer Built Environment: The Case of Japan’ developed by the DRM Hub Tokyo, with generous support from MLIT. The seminar will highlight key takeaways and lessons from the report. The seminar will also include a discussion on Philippines’s ongoing experience, with Japan’s support, on updating their building standards and implementation rules to enhance the resilience of the built environment.

Report: Transforming Disaster Experience into a Safer Built Environment: The Case of Japan (PDF)

Program

Opening Remarks

Masato Miyazaki
Special Representative, Japan, World Bank Group

Presentations

Thomas Moullier
Senior Urban Specialist and Team Leader of the Building Regulation for Resilience Program, World Bank

Hideaki Sato
Director for Building Technology Policy Analysis, Housing Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)

Karen Jimeno
Undersecretary, Department of Public Works, Philippines

Moderator

Keiko Sakoda
Disaster Risk Management Specialist, Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice, World Bank

*This session will be recorded for later viewing.

Related Event

March 12-16, 2018
Technical Deep Dive on Seismic Risk and Resilience