The KKE Vision 2016 symposium, organized by Kozo Keikaku Engineering (KKE) Inc., an engineering consulting firm based in Tokyo, was held on Oct. 26 at the Toranomon Hills Forum on the fifth floor of the Toranomon Hills complex.

The KKE Vision symposium was first set up over a decade ago — based on KKE’s corporate vision — with the aim of building a bridge between universities and research institutions and the business world. Although the format of the event has changed throughout the years, its goals have not changed, and the company is continuously trying to exemplify that vision through its symposiums.

The events mainly feature lectures by experts across a wide range of areas. Through these lectures KKE wishes to offer a place where many people, including participants and lecturers, can share different types of “wisdoms” in society, in trying to make a better society.

This year's symposium had lectures ranging across diverse themes such as "Japan and international affairs in the future," "Design and innovation," "Coexistence of the forest and the city" and "The window to welfare engineering."

One of the lectures was on the "supply of information, aiming at the reduction of damage from natural disasters." Yasuo Sekita, director-general of the Forecast Department of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), gave the lecture.

Sekita, using various data, showed how the JMA provides information on disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and inclement weather. He talked about how the different kinds of technical platforms formulate the information and how we should use such information when disasters strike.