Yasusuke Tsukagoshi
Special Representative, Japan, World Bank Group

Mr. Yasusuke Tsukagoshi became Special Representative, Japan on August 1, 2013. The Special Representative leads the institutional relationship with the Japanese Government, partners, and stakeholders; oversees the World Bank Tokyo Office; and has responsibility for coordinating and managing outreach and communications programs in Japan. Mr. Tsukagoshi, a Japanese national, has had a long career in Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MOF). Most recently, he served as Director General of Tokyo Customs following senior positions in the Ministry’s Customs and Tariff Bureau. Prior to the Customs’ positions, he had 17 years of experience in international finance and development. From 2008 to 2011 Mr. Tsukagoshi was Executive Director at the Inter-American Development Bank, representing Croatia, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom, and from 1988 to 1991 he served as Executive Director at the African Development Bank, representing Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Japan, and Saudi Arabia.

Akihiro Tsuchiya
Director, Multilateral Development Banks Division, International Bureau, Ministry of Finance, Japan

John Roome
Senior Director, Climate Change, Sustainable Development Practice Group, World Bank Group

Mr. John Roome is leading climate change for the World Bank Group. As Senior Director for Climate Change, Mr. Roome not only leads a team of specialists, but works across the institution to advance the World Bank Group’s climate change agenda. Prior to this assignment he was Operations and Strategy Director for Global Practices and Cross Cutting Solutions at the World Bank Group. He previously served as Director for Sustainable Development in the World Bank’s East Asia Region, responsible for working with 22 client countries in the region in the water, urban, transport, energy, rural, agriculture, environment, and social sectors, as well as in disaster risk management and climate change. Mr. Roome has also worked as Operations and Strategy Director in the World Bank’s South Asia region and as Operational Quality Director in the World Bank’s Africa region for about five years. He joined the World Bank Group in 1989, working initially in Africa. There he focused mainly on infrastructure issues including roads programs, the aviation and water sectors and doing deals for the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), in the banking, mining and agro-industry sectors. Before joining the World Bank Group, he worked in Europe for Monitor Company, a leading corporate strategy consulting firm, and at Old Mutual, a South African Life Assurance Company. Mr. Roome was educated at Oxford University, where he obtained Masters Degrees in Econometrics and in Management Studies, and the University of Cape Town where he obtained a Bachelors degree in Economics, Statistics and Actuarial Science.

Masaaki Nagamura
General Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Planning Department, Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. / Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd.

Mr. Masaaki Nagamura has been Division Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Planning Department at both Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. since August 2011. He is a member of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures under the auspices of the Financial Stability Board. He also serves the Asia Pacific Financial Forum (APFF), a platform for public-private sector collaboration among the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies, as a Sherpa to promote discussion on disaster risk financing and insurance in the APEC region. He is an active member of The Geneva Association’s Extreme Events and Climate Risk (EE+CR) Project. His contribution to EE+CR includes the successful organization of “Insurance as Contributors to Problem Solving and Impact Reduction”, a multi-stakeholder dialogue held as a public forum event at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, on 16 March, 2015. He was at the forefront of launching the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI), an offspring of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), back in June 2012. He co-chaired the Asian Consultation Meeting in Tokyo in November, 2011, which was critical for the new initiative to gain support from the Asian insurance market. He went on to become one of PSI’s first members of the Board, and served 2013-2014 terms. Prior to assuming the current position, he was involved in international insurance regulatory issues, between 2004 and 2011, as Manager in charge of international issues at Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire's Corporate Planning Department. Between 1997 and 2004, he was stationed in Chicago, Illinois, as an insurance account executive serving commercial clients in the U.S. Midwest.

Nobuo Mimura
President, Ibaraki University

Dr. Nobuo Mimura is an expert of environmental engineering and coastal engineering. He is leading a number of projects on climate change impact assessment and adaptation in Japan and the Asia-Pacific region. Since 1992, he participated in the United Nation’s “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)” as an expert, and served as a lead author and as a coordinating lead author of Second to Fifth Assessment Reports. In Japan, Dr. Mimura served as a member of the Cabinet Office’s Council for Science and Technology, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Ministry of the Environment (MOE), and Ibaraki Prefectural Government. He has authored a number of books and academic papers, including “Developing Sustainability Science: Towards Sustainable Global, Social and Human Systems” (Shinyosha) and “Climate Change and Global Sustainability: A Holistic Approach” (United Nations University Press). Dr. Mimura holds a Doctor of Engineering from the School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. Prior to being appointed to the current position in September 2014, he served as a research associate at California Institute of Technology; Professor, Department of Urban and Civil Engineering, Ibaraki University; Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo; Professor, Center for Water Environment Studies, Ibaraki University; and Director, Institute of Global Change Adaptation Science, Ibaraki University.

James Newman
Disaster Risk Management Specialist, Disaster Risk Management Hub, Tokyo, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, World Bank

Since joining the World Bank in 2013, Mr. James Newman has led Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR)’s overall work planning, and served as focal point for urban resilience and regional portfolios in South Asia and East Asia Pacific. He contributed to the development of the World Bank’s CityStrength Diagnostic and Medellin Collaboration on Urban Resilience. He has supported World Bank projects and technical assistance, including post-disaster assessments, in India, Nepal, South Africa, and Vietnam. Prior to GFDRR, he worked for the City of Baltimore, contributing to the city’s 10-Year Financial Plan, risk management, CitiStat performance management, and open data, and served as acting deputy procurement agent. He has also covered Latin American and Caribbean finance and insurance for a Chilean market intelligence firm. Studying economics and public policy, Mr. Newman has a Master’s from Georgetown and Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile and undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis. As an adjunct professor, he has taught urban management, public policy, and statistics at University of Baltimore’s Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) program.

(Listed in the order of presentation)

❖ Overview

❖ Our Activities

Japan is world-renowned for managing disasters with its advanced technologies, strengthened institutions, investments and innovative solutions. The Disaster Risk Management Hub, Tokyo organized the 11th DRM Seminar to open a conversation on the risks developing countries face from disaster, the innovative and creative solutions being employed, and opportunities to make the most of investment and technical expertise from Japan. At the seminar, Mr. John Roome, Senior Director, Climate Change Group, World Bank Group, emphasized leveraging disaster risk management for sustainable development.

The seminar highlighted that the first step to manage the threats that disasters pose is to recognize the risks, as Japan has demonstrated through its practice of disaster risk identification. As Mr. Roome pointed out, this is seen in the careful study and implementation of building regulation against seismic and other risks employed in Japan. The DRM Hub is working to help document this good practice on building codes and connect developing countries, such as the Philippines, with ways to implement it in their policies. Once reliable risk information is available, the public and private sectors have better options for investment and policy actions to manage their disaster risks, such as infrastructure investment and insurance.

Science to Drive Accurate Risk Information

The need for risk information that is based on strong scientific research and good practice was a key point that emerged from the seminar. Mr. Masaaki Nagamura, General Manager, Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. / Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., explained that insurance products and the industry as a whole relies on scientifically-driven risk models and prudent recommendations to clients on methods to better manage their risks. In particular, Mr. Nagamura noted key efforts that Tokio Marine has taken on with University of Tokyo to forecast expected changes in typhoon activity as a result of climate change and with Tohoku University’s IRIDeS Institute to complete probabilistic tsunami hazard analysis.

Mr. Roome pointed to the case of Pacific Island countries gaining access to an insurance pooling mechanism, known as the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI). Improved risk information in these countries made this innovation possible, and the Japan-World Bank Program for Mainstreaming DRM, the Government of Japan, and many other partners have played instrumental roles making this project sustainable.

Opportunities for a Disaster and Climate Resilient Society

All the speakers called attention to the opportunity to increase the disaster resilience of society by taking available information, and making it more available to the public and stakeholders at all levels.

Professor Nobuo Mimura, President, Ibaraki University, presented a comprehensive view of the various risks climate change poses for society. In his view, a climate resilient society can be shaped up by using a two-pronged approach – science-driven and society-based.

This entails ensuring strong climate and disaster modelling is made applicable for people’s decisions about preparedness and investment, and enhancing the capacity of developing countries, such as through knowledge exchange with global experts.

For Mr. Nagamura, building a culture of disaster preparedness and insurance awareness are core elements of increasing society’s resilience.

The seminar concluded that, by proactively integrating risk information and disaster risk management into development and investment planning, rewards for sustainable growth will accrue across sectors and across society.

❖ Overview

❖ Speakers