The 8th UNESCO Chair on Cultural Heritage and Risk Management – International Training Course on Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage 2013 was successfully held for two weeks from 7 to 21 September 2013 with 10 participants from Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Nigeria, Tanzania, Thailand and Italy who were selected through rigorous selection process out of more than 100 applicants from all over the world.

During the course, the trainees leant about various aspects of disaster risk management of cultural heritage in Japan and other parts of the world though lectures, site visits  and workshops in Kyoto, and also leant about long-term recovery process in Kobe following the Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake in 1995.

Also, they could identify the potential role of cultural heritage in the two and half years of rehabilitation process following the Great Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011 through practical workshops and field works in Minami-Sanriku Cho, Miyagi Prefecture.

During the course, the participants received valuable advice from various resource persons from Japan and abroad including Mr. Joseph King, Sites Unit Director of ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) and from Mr. Giovanni Boccardi, Focal Point Officer on Sustainable Development of UNESCO World Heritage Centre located in Paris, who delivered a lecture through internet.  We strongly believe that these lectures and advices provided valuable opportunities to the participants of the course.

The “UNESCO Chair International Training Course on Disaster Risk Management of Cultural Heritage” organized by Ritsumeikan University will continue to be a flagship initiative in the coming years. We hope to continue receiving valuable support and advice from domestic and international resource persons and participants to enrich the contents of the training and improving the course in the future.