In the Asian region Japan is a country that faces frequent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and typhoons. It is also one of the few developed nations in the region with a rich experience and knowledge in dealing with natural calamities through decades of practice, which forms an important part of the common know-how on disaster prevention and reduction for the region.

Following the massive earthquake that struck Wenchuan in Sichuan province on May 22, Japan's seismic department immediately provided relevant data to China to confirm the accuracy of the latter's own, while the Japanese government took the lead in sending professional rescue and medical teams to the disaster area in Sichuan. Other Asian countries soon offered their support in a deluge of humanitarian gestures. This shows there is real possibility that Asia can build up a region-wide disaster prevention and reduction system based on mutual support and cooperation.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao suggested to the Japanese government at the high-level meeting on relief efforts for tsunami-ravaged Indonesia in early 2005 that China and Japan should step up cooperation on disaster prevention and reduction in the region. Then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed his support for Wen's proposal.

Today, as the strategic relationship of mutual benefit has become the dominant theme of the China-Japan relations, it will no doubt serve the common interest of the whole Asian region to construct a regional disaster monitoring and reporting system based on economic and environmental cooperation.

(China Daily June 4, 2008)