The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) held a practical comprehensive drill for the rescue team of the Japan Disaster Relief Team (JDR), which is dispatched to large-scale disasters overseas, from March 12 to 14 at the Hyogo Prefectural Disaster Prevention Center (Miki City) as the main venue.
The rescue team is mainly tasked with searching and rescuing people left behind in collapsed buildings caused by earthquakes, and was internationally certified as the highest level (heavy team) by the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), a specialized agency of the United Nations, in 2010. The team consists of rescue personnel selected from the police, fire department, Japan Coast Guard, etc., rescue dogs and handlers, medical team, structural assessment specialists, and operations coordinators.
Comprehensive training drills are held approximately once a year to develop teamwork, improve readiness, and confirm search and rescue methods in accordance with international standards. This is the first training exercise since the JDR rescue team was dispatched to the Turkey earthquake that occurred in February 2023.
On the morning of March 12, 76 team members and 4 rescue dogs participated in the training, gathering at JICA Kansai (Chuo Ward, Kobe City), which was assumed to be Narita Airport. After moving to the Hyogo Prefectural Disaster Prevention Center (Miki City), which was assumed to be in the disaster-stricken country, they immediately started coordination with the government of the affected country, set up a camp to serve as a base of operations, and began initial search and rescue activities (ASR2 activities[1]), leading to full-scale search and rescue activities. The scenario is not known to the participating team members in advance, and the exercise is conducted nonstop for 48 consecutive hours, just like a real battle.
Rescue team members work with rescue dogs in search and rescue operations, work with structural assessment specialists to ensure the safety of rescue operations in disaster-stricken buildings, work with medical team members to rescue and save people in need of rescue, and work with the communications team to establish a communications network with the command post. In addition, appropriate command by the command headquarters, establishment of logistics by the operations coordinator, and international cooperation and coordination with rescue teams from other countries are also important training items.
JICA will continue its efforts to build a higher level rescue team based on the results of this training.
[1] ASR2: Sector Assessment, the second of the five stages of the Assessment, Search and Rescue (ASR) activities specified in the INSARAG Guidelines. An activity to identify a site where a person in need of rescue may be located.
© Source JICA