From Japan to Türkiye, We Talked About Earthquakes

Japanese scientists who experienced the Kobe Earthquake delivered a conference at Bahçeşehir University, sharing their experience on "Earthquakes and Municipal Governance" and presenting their recommendations.

A 5-member Japanese delegation of experts from different scientific disciplines, who experienced firsthand, through their duties at the Kobe Municipality, how the city of Kobe healed its wounds and returned to normal in a short time after the major earthquake of 1995, came to Türkiye to carry out various studies and deliver a conference.

As part of this social responsibility initiative hosted by Bahçeşehir University and sponsored by Şişli Municipality, the Japanese scientists, namely Dr. Takuya Nagacof the Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center of the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention, former General Manager of the Kobe Citizens' Cooperative Society Toshiyuki Onoda, former General Manager of Hyogo Civil Engineers Eiji Tarumi, Yoshira Hayashi from Kobe Municipality, and Head of the Department of Architecture at Mukogawa University and Director of the Turkish Culture Research Center Shigeyuki Okazaki, went to Van on 20 December 2011 to carry out studies. The delegation then delivered a conference on "The Kobe Experience in Earthquakes and Municipal Governance" at Bahçeşehir University on Thursday, 22 December 2011.

The conference began with a minute of silence in memory of Japanese doctor Atsushi Miyazaki , who lost his life in the Van Earthquake. The scientists, saying that Türkiye must work hard on earthquake preparedness, stated, "Earthquake preparedness is a task that requires coordination. We have worked on this for many years and continue to do so," and shared their knowledge on "how to ensure the earthquake resistance of buildings, how to take precautions before a disaster and how administrations function after a disaster."