Welcome speech

Yasunobu Ishii, the Nippon Foundation

Thank you, Mr. Kawamura, for your kind introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon from Japan. Thank you for joining our conference today, whether it be in person, or online from locations all over the world. In fact, half of the speakers at today's conference will be also participating via the internet.

On behalf of the co-organizers, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all the speakers for taking their precious time to share their insights despite the time differences. We truly appreciate your continuous partnership with us regarding disability inclusive disaster risk reduction.

Working together, we share the success of the Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction with the adoption of the magnificent "Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction", in which disabled people are recognized as important stakeholders in disaster risk reduction.

Now, it is time to put those words into action. Without implementation, the Sendai Framework will be nothing more than a piece of paper, and thousands of lives will be lost once more.

Starting from this month, the Nippon Foundation decided to begin practical initiatives in Japan with the aim to save the lives of persons with disabilities during and after the evacuation process.

Through these activities, the Nippon Foundation hopes to spread successful examples of practical action on inclusive disaster risk reduction and, most importantly, to contribute to saving the lives of disabled people all over the world when the next disaster occurs.

Last but not least, I would like to convey my appreciation to our longtime partners Rehabilitation International and Assistive Technology Development Organization, as well as all the staff who had a hand in co-organizing the event today.

It is my wish that today's event will contribute to putting the Sendai framework into action and of course, working together, to create larger momentum towards HABITAT III in October in Ecuador and the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2017 in Mexico.