By Ms. Yoriko Iiba & Dr. Bunichiro Shibazaki of IISEE

The Closing Ceremony of the Global Seismological Observation Training Course which started on January 20 was held in BRI on Friday, March 13, 2015. Eleven participants from China, Egypt (2), Iran, Nepal (2), Pakistan (2), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Thailand attended the ceremony and have received the certificates from JICA and BRI/IISEE. Ms. Masume Eskndari from Iran made an address in reply as the representative of participants. (See page 4)

Please see the Newsletter attached on pages 1&2.

By Ms. Yoriko Iiba, Head of IISEE Administration Division

The Third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction was held from March 14 to 18, 2015 in Sendai city, Miyagi prefecture, Japan. Reported by the Sendai Committee for the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction on March 19, an estimated attendance of 6,500 people from 187 countries appeared at the official programs hosted by UN in Sendai International Centre, and a total of 156,082 people participated in the Public Forum.

Please see the Newsletter attached on page 2.

By Dr. Tatusya Azuhata, Chief Research Engineer of IISEE

Dr. Mittal from Central Building Research Institute (CSIR) of India kindly accepted our offer to give a lecture at the IISEE Seminar held on February 23, 2015. Dr. Mittal is a principal scientist and a group leader of structural engineering group in CSIR, and what’s more, he is a former participant of the IISEE training course. He was awarded an IISEE diploma of Earthquake Engineering course in 1999.

Please see the Newsletter attached on pages 2&3.

Dr. Taiki Saito, IISEE Visiting Research Fellow/Lecturer
(Professor, Toyohashi University of Technology)

Please see the Newsletter attached on page 3.

Mr. Andres Jose ALFARO Catillo:
Researcher,
CIEES Colombia
(Colombia, Seismology Course, 2004-2005)

Please see the Newsletter attached on page 3.

By Ms. Masume Eskndari from Iran

Mr. KIMURA of JICA Tsukuba, Dr.YOKOI of IISEE, Dr. SAKAMOTO of BRI, Mr. ISHII of MOFA, Respected Senseis, Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Konnichiwa.
On behalf of my friends, other participants of global seismological observation course, I’m glad to have this opportunity to express our feelings and grateful sense to all of you.

Please see the Newsletter attached on page 4.