Japan to expand disaster preparedness with new national agency

Japan will launch the National Disaster Management Agency on Nov. 2 to serve as the government’s command center for disaster preparedness and response, disaster management minister Goshi Hosono said Friday.

The agency will substantially expand the Cabinet Office’s existing disaster management division, covering preparedness in normal times and coordinating responses from the onset of disasters through recovery and reconstruction.

The agency, directly under the Cabinet and headed by the prime minister, will formulate basic disaster management policies, devise plans for responding to large-scale disasters and coordinate responses across government ministries and agencies.

A disaster management minister will have the authority to issue recommendations to ministries and agencies, which will be required to respect them.

In addition to the agency’s headquarters, the government plans to establish two regional bureaus in fiscal 2027 or later to prepare for major earthquakes.

The planned bureaus would prepare for a possible Nankai Trough megaquake off the Pacific coast of central to southwestern Japan and major earthquakes along the Japan and Chishima trenches off the Pacific coast from the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido to the Tohoku northeastern region.

Hosono said the government will set up an expert panel to discuss the bureaus’ functions and organizational structure before considering specific locations based on its findings.

The minister also unveiled the agency’s logo, which incorporates a stylized version of the kanji character for “prevention” in red, orange and blue. He said the three colors represent the agency’s role as a consistent command center before, during and after disasters.