Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi explains Japan's proposals for natural disaster reduction at the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Reduction.

A U.N. meeting of 4,000 kicks off in Kobe with pleas for measures that will thwart disasters and save lives.

KOBE-On the first day of the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Reduction, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi explained Japan's plans for reducing disaster risks on a global scale and its new proposal for a U.N. ``disaster database'' at Kobe that could be used by all nations.

More than 4,000 participants from about 150 nations and international organizations have gathered for the five-day conference, which began Tuesday.

Discussions will focus on plans to set up an early warning system for tsunami and other disasters in the Indian Ocean with a framework for action to be adopted on the final day.

Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, stressed in his opening speech that disaster-risk reduction is a necessary expense.

``It is an essential investment in our common future,'' Egeland said. ``Benefits of this investment will be calculated not only in dollars, euros or yen saved, but also in saved lives in every corner of the globe.''

He said those efforts ``should be woven into the fabric of a community's overall development.''

Emperor Akihito, who attended the opening ceremony with Empress Michiko, said it was crucial not to forget the lessons of past disasters.

``A quarter of the current population of Kobe did not experience the disastrous Great Hanshin Earthquake,'' the emperor said, raising his concern that earthquake vigilance might be fading. Japan on Monday marked the 10th anniversary of the quake that killed more than 6,400.

The emperor also recalled the 1896 Meiji Sanriku Earthquake-Tsunami that hit the Sanriku coast on the Pacific Ocean in northern Japan, killing more than 20,000 people, and the 1933 Sanriku Earthquake-Tsunami that left about 3,000 dead and missing.

``With an almost 40-year break, people did not have a sufficient sense of vigilance against a post-quake tsunami in the second disaster, which is known to have expanded the damage,'' the emperor said.

Undersecretary general Egeland specifically laid out some possible goals for the Framework for Action, which is to be achieved during the next 10 years.

They included: setting up early warning systems for vulnerable communities; teaching children about natural hazards as part of their basic lifeskills education; training communities to handle disaster risks; and the need to build or rebuild hospitals, health centers and schools as ``safe havens'' that can withstand earthquakes, cyclones and other calamities.

Egeland also proposed that a minimum of 10 percent of the billions now spent on disaster relief by all nations should be earmarked over the next 10 years for reducing disaster risks.

``I am aware how much money is being spent for fire brigades, or for putting plaster on the wound, but (the spending is) too little on preventing the devastation and suffering in the first place,'' he said.

Japan on Tuesday announced its package proposal for measures to reduce natural disasters in developing countries.

In it, Tokyo urged the creation of portfolios for sharing information among U.N. member states. The portfolios would include technologies for disaster prevention and lessons learned from disasters.

Koizumi, who flew to the conference site by helicopter from Osaka's Itami airport, explained Tokyo's proposals and said that Japan is also considering a moratorium of debt payments by countries hard hit by the tsunami.

Koizumi said Japan is pushing its ``Initiative for Disaster Reduction'' through its official development assistance.

He also said Japan will seek to strengthen ties with neighboring nations for disaster reduction through the Asian Disaster Reduction Center based in Kobe and urged the creation of a U.N. database for sharing information on worldwide disaster-recovery case studies.

Preparing for natural disasters is as important as coping with conflicts and tensions derived from racial, religious and cultural differences, Koizumi said.

Also in attendance at the conference were foreign government ministers, including Serge Lepeltier, the French ecology and sustainable development minister, and Edelgard Bulmahn, the German federal minister for education and research. France intends to propose its own early warning system for the French Reunion islands and its plans to expand it to cover the Indian Ocean.(IHT/Asahi: January 19,2005)