Tokyo( Japan )Japan’s Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, attended one of the country’s largest events on disaster preparedness on Sunday.
The Princess arrived in the city of Niigata along the Sea of Japan for the first time on Saturday. She was greeted by officials at the venue of this year’s National Convention on Disaster Risk Reduction.
The Cabinet Office and other entities have annually held the event since 2016, providing a platform for local governments and organizations to outline their efforts to mitigate disaster risks.
This year’s convention had the theme of passing on experiences and lessons from disasters to future generations.
The Princess took down notes while intently listening to a lecture on the activities of a disaster welfare assistance team, or DWAT.
The group consists of professionals in nursing care and other fields and helps elderly citizens, people with disabilities, children and other survivors in the aftermath of large-scale disasters.
The group operated after a major earthquake jolted the Noto Peninsula in central Japan on New Year’s Day last year.
The lecture referred to difficulty in creating assistance plans in accordance with disaster situations and welfare needs.
A Cabinet Office official said the Princess told the team she noticed that not only its members but also other staff who send them off for relief missions must go through tough experiences.
The Princess later went to the Niigata City History Museum to see exhibits on such themes as the development of the maritime shipping industry.
On Monday, she will visit areas hit hard by a powerful earthquake that struck Niigata Prefecture in 2004.
Editorial Note: An earlier version of this story said Princess Aiko arrived in Niigata on Sunday. It should have been “on Saturday.”
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