NTT East signed a disaster prevention cooperation agreement on Wednesday, the 21st, with Yokosuka City, Kamakura City, Zushi City, Miura City, and Hayama Town (4 cities and 1 town) located on the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa Prefecture, with the aim of promoting disaster-resistant community development throughout the peninsula by responding to disaster risks unique to the peninsula region.

Yokosuka City Mayor Katsuaki Uechi said, “It all started with the Noto Peninsula earthquake. We witnessed the isolated situation with roads and other infrastructure cut off, and the prolonged recovery and relief efforts, and we thought about how to protect the peninsula, which has the same geographical features. In December last year, the 4 cities and 1 town agreed to help each other and cooperate on the issues they share. In April this year, we launched the Miura Peninsula Mayors’ Association. It is encouraging that we were able to conclude a disaster prevention cooperation agreement with NTT East within the broad framework of the Miura Peninsula amid these circumstances.”
NTT East President Shibuya Naoki said, “We have previously signed disaster prevention cooperation agreements with local governments on the peninsula individually, but this time we will evolve it further and expand it to a total effort that includes more than just communications. It is, so to speak, total optimization of the peninsula. This is the first effort for our company. We would like to proceed so that it will become a leading example that spreads nationwide.”

Peninsulas face unique challenges when it comes to disaster prevention. As was made clear by the Noto Peninsula earthquake, transportation is often cut off and isolated villages are likely to occur. Recovery efforts are also extremely difficult.

In such areas, the key to increasing resilience is to be able to contact people wherever they are and continue work in a remote environment.

“The important thing is to be phase-free. The key is to have a seamless connection between normal and emergency situations. It is important to be able to prepare and operate in anticipation of disasters in peacetime, and eliminating the boundary between peacetime and emergency situations will increase disaster prevention capabilities” (President Shibuya).

NTT East cites strengthening disaster prevention capabilities by utilizing communications buildings as a specific initiative. The company has communications buildings throughout the Miura Peninsula area. It claims that by utilizing these communications buildings, it will be able to expand the management of emergency supplies to a wider area.
Stockpiling disaster supplies in local governments is extremely complicated due to a lack of storage space and the need to manage expired supplies. By having the company take on this part, stockpiling management will become more efficient and wide-area, centralized stockpiling management will be realized.
The company also aims for data-driven disaster prevention. When a disaster occurs, the workload of local government employees increases dramatically, making it difficult to focus on resident services as they would like.
By using cutting-edge digital technology to address these issues and reduce the burden on local government employees, the company claims that they will be able to spend more time interacting with residents.
“NTT East’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute will play a central role in researching data-driven regional disaster prevention and implementing the results on the Miura Peninsula, making the Miura Peninsula an advanced disaster prevention area,” said President Shibuya.

Kamakura Mayor Matsuo Takashi commented, “Kamakura is visited by many tourists from both Japan and abroad. It is important that we continue to develop the city in a way that is safe for not only Kamakura’s residents but also tourists. I hope that our collaboration with NTT East will be useful.”
Hayama Town Mayor Yamanashi Takahito commented, “Through this collaboration agreement, NTT East will carry out a disaster prevention risk assessment of our company. We are grateful because until now there have been very few objective and comprehensive evaluations of how effective our measures are actually and where there are shortcomings”.

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