Much of the world was shaken from its lethargy on disaster preparedness by the Asian tsunami in December 2004. The following month, 168 countries adopted an international blueprint for disaster-risk reduction at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction, hosted by the city of Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, the scene in 1995 of one of Japan’s worst earthquakes, with more than 5,000 lives lost.
由于2004年12月份亚洲发生的海啸，全世界大多数国家都已经从睡梦中醒来，开始着手应对灾难的准备。在随后的一个月，168个国家采取了世界减灾大会上所提出的国际减灾蓝本。这一大会在神户市兵库县举办，而1995年这里发生了日本最严重的地震，夺走了5000多人的性命。