INTRODUCTION

Under a determination to protect

In any disaster, we must not become powerless, as long as there are hands extended for help.

Fire services in Japan were started as autonomous bodies with functions closely linked to local communities, and these bodies have been playing an important role in ensuring people's safety, including such activities as fire prevention, fire fighting, rescue operations, and disaster control operations in earthquakes, storms and floods, and have been undergoing a number of reforms in system-, methodology-, facility-, material- and equipment-related improvement and strengthening resulting from various efforts made throughout their history. We are required to make efforts continually in the future to further improve and strengthen the present fire defense system, which is placed mainly under the control of local autonomous bodies and developed around regional fire defense headquarters and Volunteer Fire Corps and on the basis of cooperation with residents of the communities. In addition, we are also required to establish a comprehensive fire defense system today from a national point of view because of the need for emergency control in a large-scale, extraordinary disaster such as the expected great earthquake. Fire and Disaster Management Agency intends to address these problems positively and make an all-out effort to ensure people's security and develop communities that promise a peaceful life for people.