Students leave for summit in Japan

Education

SIX students and a teacher from Port Moresby National High School will leave for Japan today to take part in a high school summit on World Tsunami Awareness Day.
They have been invited by the Japanese Government and will join students from 29 other countries in Kuroshio-cho, Kochi Prefecture, Japan.
The World Tsunami Awareness Day – Nov 5 – was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2015.
A statement from Embassy of Japan said the summit was scheduled to take place on Nov 25-26.
Before the meeting, the Papua New Guinea participants will engage in study tour in Wakayama Prefecture as well as programmes leading to the promotion of holistic understanding towards the country and its culture.
“The purpose of the programme is to foster leaders who will be responsible for mitigating the effects of earthquakes and tsunami and building national resilience in the future,” it says
With that goal in mind, the students will learn about the history of tsunami and post-earthquake recovery/reconstruction in Japan.
They will also learn about Japan’s disaster risk prevention and reduction efforts, including its preparations for Nankai Trough Earthquake – a huge earthquake which, forecasters say, might occur in the ocean area, south of Japanese islands in the near future.
Discussion of future challenges and developments in their own countries, insights about earthquakes and tsunami threats, and disaster prevention measures, common concern for all countries, will be shared.
The Embassy of Japan believes participation of the PNG youths in this programme makes a great contribution to further promoting goodwill and amiable diplomatic relations between Japan and Papua New Guinea.