IRDR, jointly with Science Council Japan, the National Committee IRDR-Japan, the University of Tokyo and UNISDR, are co-sponsors of the “The Tokyo Conference on International Study for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience”, on 14-16 January 2015 in Tokyo, Japan.

The 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (3rd WCDRR) will be held in Sendai, Japan in March 2015, and the successor arrangement of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA2) which will serve as the global guiding principle for the following years is expected to be adopted on this occasion. In addition, the negotiations on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be conducted in autumn 2015. Taking this opportunity, it is critically important to discuss integrated strategies for DRR based on science and technology to be embodied in HFA2 and to identify effective methods for its implementation. It is also indispensable to clarify the role of science and technology for DRR in sustainable development and include DRR strategic goals in the expected SDGs.

Japan, due to geographical and geological conditions, has been tormented by natural disasters in the course of her history, and most recently hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) in 2011. However her people has overcome these difficulties and based on the lessons of GEJE, the country is in the process of strengthening the societal resilience and re-establishing her land management and social infrastructure. The Japanese scientific community, in cooperation with the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) is ready to share the lessons learnt and to illustrate a road map and introduce concrete examples towards integrating disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.