Japan hopes to host U.N. disaster conference

GENEVA, May 10 Kyodo -
Japan expressed its intention to host a U.N. conference on disaster risk reduction as a biennial U.N. disaster prevention gathering commenced in Geneva on Tuesday.
Shozo Azuma, senior vice minister at the Cabinet Office, said in his speech at the gathering that the Japanese government, which is currently struggling to contain the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power complex, is considering hosting a preparatory meeting next year for the World Conference on Disaster Reduction.
Japan has hosted the risk reduction conference, which is held irregularly -- twice in the past -- in Yokohama in 1994 and in Kobe in 2005. Azuma said Japan could host the next meeting around 2015.
The U.N. gathering in Geneva is the first large-scale international meeting on disaster prevention and reconstruction since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan that crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant.
At the gathering, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon took up the issue of nuclear plant accidents as a major theme for the first time.
Ban told at the opening that although nuclear technology has ''enormous potential,'' a stronger international framework is required to address safety and cross-border issues such as how to share information and secure coherence of strategies.
He also said the United Nations will convene a high-level meeting Sept. 22 in New York on the safe use of nuclear power in the wake of radiation leaks at the nuclear power station in Fukushima Prefecture.
''Fukushima has raised questions on nuclear safety, and the future of nuclear use,'' Ban said.
The high-level meeting, involving both state leaders and Cabinet members, will be held during the regular session of the General Assembly.
Meanwhile, at the four-day gathering in Geneva, about 2,700 delegates from around 170 countries and regions will seek to create a framework to share countermeasures for nuclear accidents that have global spillover effects, participants said.
The participants are also discussing how best to enhance local governments' anti-disaster measures, including close communication and cooperation with central governments, learning lessons from the Japanese disaster that killed nearly 15,000 people and left around 10,000 others missing.
Japan has pledged at the gathering to provide information on radioactive contamination to the international community and asked its global counterparts to prevent the spread of harmful rumors regarding radiation.