I am very pleased that the second World Bosai Forum will be held in the city of Sendai, following the first World Disaster Reduction Forum held two years ago. I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to those concerned, including the newly established World Bosai Forum Foundation, in order for it to serve as the forum secretariat.
As the only city in the region with a population of 1 million, Sendai suffered severe damage in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. In addition, as a host city of the third U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in 2015 that adopted the "Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030," we feel we have a responsibility to continuously disseminate experiences and lessons learned from these disasters to the world.
At the World Bosai Forum, the city of Sendai will host and disseminate a session on women's leadership and the disaster risk reduction industry, as well as a session on the theme of sharing experiences and memories of disaster across generations.