The recent tsunami that devastated the Indian Ocean coasts has made it obvious that high-risk areas need to mitigate the effects of natural disasters. Japan long ago put together the world's best tsunami warning system. The key to its effectiveness: making even the youngest citizens aware. Judging from the champion's pose, arms outstretched with trophy in hand, you might have thought that 15-year-old Tomoya Hirata's team had just won one of Japan's prestigious national sporting events. But triumph for Hirata and his 61 classmates at Shinjo Middle School, came for their tsunami preparedness project at the second annual "Disaster Prevention Education Challenge Plan" workshop, held last month [February 27, 2005]. The national program, sponsored by the cabinet and several ministries, selects the year's top twenty local disaster prevention programs and then awards one top prize.
展开▼
