Japan briefed Asian media on its latest disaster-prevention technologies, stressing that resilience must become a driver of sustainable growth for the region.
Misumi Takahito of Japan’s Cabinet Secretariat said the country has shifted from “reactive disaster response to proactive prevention,” shaped by decades of experience with earthquakes, typhoons, floods, heavy snow and increasingly severe climate-related events.
He warned that disasters in one country now have direct consequences on others through global supply chains, adding that “reducing disaster risks in Asia is shared security and shared prosperity.”
The briefing introduced two examples of Japan’s cutting-edge innovations. The first, presented by Furuno Electric’s Soshi Kawakita, was an ultra-compact X-band weather radar capable of detecting localized heavy rainfall with high-precision, real-time data. The 1-meter device, already deployed in Singapore, can be installed on rooftops without heavy machinery and can fill blind-spots left by large radars. The second was the “Instant House,” a lightweight emergency shelter developed by Professor Keisuke Kitagawa from the Nagoya Institute of Technology. Using an inflatable structure and insulation foam, it can be constructed in about one hour and was recently deployed during disasters in Turkey, Syria and Japan.
Japan also emphasized its whole-of-nation approach, combining government policy, private-sector innovation and academic research.
Misumi said Japan aims to co-create solutions with Asian partners, noting that lessons learned from Japan’s disaster-resilient culture can help strengthen preparedness worldwide.
