The United Nations conference on reducing disaster risks, to be held in Sendai from March 14 to 18, should serve as an opportunity for Japan to share its experiences in dealing with severe natural disasters, including the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the host city and many other municipalities on the Pacific coastline four years ago.

Japan should do its best to contribute to global efforts to minimize losses from such catastrophes by taking the lead for effective measures to come out of the meeting.

Japan will be hosting the Third U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction following the two earlier gatherings also held in this country — in Yokohama in 1994 and Kobe in 2005. The last conference was held a decade after the Hyogo Prefecture's capital and its vicinity were devastated in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake. Since then the nation has endured a series of disasters including volcanic eruptions, landslides caused by torrential rains, as well as the nuclear crisis caused by the meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant in the 2011 quake and tsunami.