TOKYO, Japan — Every year ahead of Japan’s four-month typhoon season, teams of experts are deployed to check dikes, floodwalls, and other disaster-resilient infrastructure for mold or damage, said Miki Inaoka, senior deputy director in Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Disaster Risk Reduction Group. The group crosschecks its findings with a nation-wide infrastructure database that shows where structures are located, when something was last examined, and what prior risks have already been cataloged.
“This doesn’t happen in many other countries,” Inaoka said.
But it should, she added, and it’s one example of Japan’s operational approach to disaster mitigation that can be shared with middle- and low-income nations. JICA prioritizes its disaster work based on the action areas outlined in the Sendai Framework — separating activities into mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. The agency is involved in each of these phases in various capacities, but it is in mitigation where the country’s strengths really shine, according to Yukinari Hosokawa, senior deputy director in JICA’s Disaster Risk Reduction Group.