Globally, up to 1.4 million people are
moving into urban areas per week, and estimates indicate
that nearly 1 billion new dwelling units will be built by
2050 to support this growing population. The way we build
our cities today directly impacts the safety of future
generations. Building code and regulation have proven to be
cost-effective tools to promote healthy, safe sand resilient
cities. Japan’s effective use of building regulations to
reduce risk is a compelling success story and provides a
number of relevant lessons for low- and middle-income
countries. Japan has proven that effective disaster risk
reduction is possible, even in the face of highly
destructive disasters. Among other measures, its building
regulations have played a crucial role.