Project Details

Japan – U.S. Sister Cities Natural Disaster Preparedness and Response Exchange

Short Description and Goal

Six U.S. and Japan cities participated in a three-day conference exchanging lessons learned and best practices in planning, preparing, and responding to natural disasters.   The six port cities had experienced earthquakes, floods, typhoons, and heavy rains were eager to improve their preparedness and response for future disasters.

Detailed Description

Peace Winds America brought together senior disaster planners and managers the U.S.-Japan Sister Cities of Seattle-Kobe, San Francisco-Osaka, and Honolulu-Hiroshima. Also participating were sister state-prefectural partners: Washington State-Hyogo Prefecture; California-Osaka Prefecture; and, Hawaii-Hiroshima Prefecture.   Representatives included the militaries and national guard, universities, the provider sector, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, The Boeing Company, Microsoft, T-Mobile, banks, transport firms, and consulting companies.   Peace Winds America and its sister organization, Peace Winds Japan, partnered with the Seattle Office of Emergency Management and the San Francisco Emergency Management Department to conduct the three-day conference for the 100+ participants.

The Japan-US Sister Cities Exchange led to numerous best practices in the following areas: Earthquakes, flooding and typhoons/Hurricanes, Government coordination, military assistance, and emergency operation Centers; public messaging; transportation infrastructure and supply change; infectious and pandemic diseases; and human services and government-NGO coordination.

Conference proceedings are available on the Peacewindsamerica.org 

Learnings

“Disaster Area Response Team working in Illinois” by USACE HQ is marked with CC PDM 1.0

Initiated by

  • Peace Winds America

Initiators are

• Public institution

Funded by

• Foundations

Project Website(s)

Social Media Link(s)

Contact Info

Project Topics

Environment, Climate & Energy, Governance, Sustainable development

Level / Project Complexity /

Medium

Participating Cities

  • Seattle
  • San Francisco
  • Honolulu
  • Kobe
  • Osaka
  • Hiroshima

Sizes of Participating Cities

• 100.000 - 500.000
• 500.000 - 1,5 Mio
• more than 1,5 Mio

Participating Countries

  • The United States of America
  • Japan

Project Region(s)

• Asia
• North America

Media Credits

Cover photo: unsplash.com