Rising global interest in preventing natural hazards led to the holding of the first High School Summit on “World Tsunami Awareness Day” in 2016, following the designation of “World Tsunami Awareness Day” at the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. This year, the 6th summit will be held at Kumamoto-Jo Hall in Kumamoto City on October 23 and 24, 2024, in which high school students from across the world will come together and hold a meeting. Through the discussion of various issues regarding natural hazards, the participants are anticipated, as future disaster prevention leaders, to enhance their understanding of threats and countermeasures of natural hazards, and to maintain continuous awareness. Additionally, the summit is aimed at building strong bonds between high school students beyond borders. I am very grateful to be appointed as the chairperson for this impactful event.
On April 14 and 16, 2016, a devastating earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.3 mainshock, struck Kumamoto prefecture in Japan. Since then, people in Kumamoto have been working desperately to rebuild their lives, but we must not forget the great support we received from people all over the world. In gratitude for their heartwarming help, I sincerely hope that we will be able to share the lessons we learned through the experience and contribute to future natural hazards prevention.

The summit of this year will be held in Kumamoto Prefecture, gathering about 500 high school students from Japan and abroad.
I lived in Germany for about 14 years. About a year ago, I moved to Kumamoto, and I have been able to experience the richness of nature here, such as the world-renowned Aso Caldera. On the other hand, Kumamoto has experienced many natural hazards. In recent years, it suffered significant damage from the Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016 and the heavy rains in July in 2020. However, it is precisely because Kumamoto has been struck by numerous natural hazards that I feel there is great significance in holding this summit here.
At this summit, we will consider and share ideas about disaster prevention, mitigation, and creative recovery with members from all over the world. By disseminating these ideas globally, I hope it will provide an opportunity for people around the world to become more aware of natural hazards than ever before.
To confront the threat of natural hazards, the cooperation of people is essential. I hope that this summit will be a place to foster "kizuna" (bonds) that transcend national borders.

I am elated that the 6th High School Students Summit on “World Tsunami Awareness Day” will be held in my hometown, Kumamoto, after a two-year hiatus.  The Noto Peninsula Earthquake occurred at the beginning of this year, and a tsunami was also observed.  Even now, several months after the disaster, there are still some areas where recovery is not yet in sight, and we hope for the earliest possible restoration.
Here in Kumamoto, we have also experienced huge earthquakes and torrential rainfall in the last decade.  In fact, I have experienced the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, including a magnitude 7.3 mainshock.  We hope to make this a meaningful conference by sharing the experiences and opinions of everyone gathered at the summit, and by communicating the insights and thoughts we gained from our experiences.  I strongly hope that the circle of disaster awareness will spread throughout the world.
I will be facilitating this year’s summit as the moderator.  I am honored and I will do my best to assist with your lively discussions.  I look forward to seeing you all in October.

In January in 2024, an earthquake and tsunami occurred in Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture. When the earthquake occurred, many people were impressed by an announcer who spoke loudly and called for evacuation. Since she was desperately calling for evacuations with the highest priority of saving lives, there must have been many people who evacuated because they felt the situation was so bad.
In Kumamoto, we have also experienced many natural hazards in the past, such as earthquakes and floods. Natural hazards occur regardless of people's intention and cannot be stopped or changed. But there are things we can change. Those things are our actions at the time when we face disasters. “Learning from the past” contributes to “changing our behavior.” I think the announcer mentioned above is a good example of learning from the past and taking actions.
At this summit, we high school students can learn from each other about "Disaster prevention", "Disaster risk reduction", and "Creative reconstruction", and by thinking about what we can do based on that knowledge and taking actions, we can change our local communities. If we can make a difference in the local community, it will lead to the dissemination of information to the entire world. By doing so, we believe that awareness of disaster prevention will increase throughout the world and people will be able to take actions to save lives.
As the moderator of this summit, I will do my very best. Let's have discussions so that everyone who participates can learn deeply and take action.

The theme of the summit is, “Lessons from Kumamoto for the World and the Future”. For Kumamoto, which has suffered from numerous natural hazards, such as the Kumamoto earthquake and The Heavy Rain Event on July 2020.
Signs of reconstruction efforts are encouraging, and enable us to live positively, and hopefully.
Kumamoto Castle was partially destroyed by the earthquake, and is being rebuilt using a combination of cutting-edge technology, and traditional techniques. The castle undergoing reconstruction is very encouraging to us all.
Therefore, we would like to take this opportunity to discuss how the world can recover with the help of the lessons of Kumamoto, based on the keyword “Reconstruction”.
This summit is a rare opportunity for high school students from all over Japan, and the world, to share their ideas that are the keys of how to solve disasters.
Nowadays, disasters are occurring frequently all over the world, it is imperative for all countries to have a common understanding of disasters, and how to cooperate with each other regarding them.
I hope that through this summit we can save as many people as possible from disaster now and in the foreseeable future.