MINSK, 30 June (BelTA) – Belarus and Japan have a high potential for advancing bilateral relations in the prevention and alleviation of emergencies. The fact was mentioned during the meeting of Belarusian Emergencies Minister Vladimir Vashchenko and Hiromichi Watanabe, Minister for Reconstruction, Minister in charge of Comprehensive Policy Coordination for Revival from the Nuclear Accident at Fukushima, head of the Japan-Belarus interparliamentary friendship group, in Minsk on 30 June, BelTA has learned.
There is a strong demand for the Belarusian experience of dealing with consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. In the first four years after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant alone over 50 Japanese delegations visited Belarus in order to borrow the relevant experience. Belarus also rendered financial aid to the tune of $500,000 to the Japanese side. The money was transferred to the Japanese Society of the Red Cross. Apart from that, Belarusian specialists provided considerable consulting aid to the Japanese side in the first few years after the Fukushima tragedy.
A considerable amount of Belarusian equipment for measuring radiation and for monitoring the environment is used in Japan. The Japanese side has repeatedly mentioned the considerable role information work plays in overcoming consequences of radiation catastrophes. Recommendations on pursuing Chernobyl-related information work leveraging local information structures have been translated into Japanese, published, and handed over to the Japanese side. Answers have been given to multiple requests for information from Japanese public organizations, education institutions, and healthcare institutions.
Recommendations, guidelines, scientific publications on rehabilitating polluted territories, peculiarities of agriculture and safe life in conditions of heightened radiation have been handed over to the Japanese side for free. Design proposals and technology proposals on radiation healthcare, protective measures in agribusiness, animal radiobiology, landscape and forest radioecology, which had been selected by Belarusian scientists taking into account Japanese Fukushima peculiarities and can be implemented with assistance of Belarusian specialists in order to minimize consequences of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, were handed over in 2016.
Apart from that, a program was launched in 2012 to offer recreation opportunities in Belarus to Japanese kids from areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. In 2017 the national children education and recreation center Zubrenok welcomed 122 kids and people accompanying them from the prefectures Fukushima and Miyagi. The recreation of 32 kids from Japan was organized in August 2018 at the expense of the Belarus President Reserve Fund. Recreation in the Zubrenok center in 2019 will be offered to school students from the prefectures Osaka and Hakkaido, which were affected by natural calamities in 2018.
