Ricoh Japan to Provide IT System to U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction

TOKYO, February 17, 2015 — Ricoh today announced that its Japan subsidiary, Ricoh Japan Corporation (President and CEO: Kunihiko Satoh) will provide “RICOH Make A Wish Digital Signage,” a unique IT system that allows users to share messages on disaster risk reduction and reconstruction, to the third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (*1), to be held in Sendai from March 14 to 18. Ricoh Japan will also help to ensure the smooth operation of the conference through document services, providing MFPs/printers and implementing maintenance support.

Sendai city was greatly affected by the East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011. The aim of the conference is to send messages worldwide regarding the reconstruction of disaster-affected areas. It will also provide Japan, the host country, with the opportunity to share its expertise on disaster risk reduction with the international community.

“RICOH Make A Wish Digital Signage” will be installed at the Tohoku Reconstruction and DRR Pavilion, a public forum to be held in the Sendai Mediatheque, during the period of the U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction. If a visitor writes down his or her thoughts about disaster prevention or reconstruction after taking a photo for remembrance, the picture including the message will be displayed in the form of a leaf on the wishing tree, which will grow larger as it receives more pictures with messages. The wishing tree displaying the messages of visitors will be on display at the Tohoku “Omotenashi” (hospitality) Center in the Sendai City Museum, located adjacent to the main conference venue.

Ricoh’s document service will provide environmentally-friendly full-color MFPs, which are made using an average of 80% recycled components of all the components by weight and battery-powered MFPs that support BCP, etc., in addition to the newest models of color MFPs and color laser printers.

Drawing inspiration from similar large scale projects, Ricoh Japan aims to provide a wide range of customers with leading-edge technologies as well as a one-stop service that encompasses installation, maintenance, and removal going forward.

Venue: Open Square, 1st floor of the Sendai Mediatheque (2-1, Ksugamachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi)
Period: 10:00 – 20:00, March 14 (Sat.) – 18 (Wed.), 2015
Organizer: Sendai Committee for the third U.N. World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, Aomori Prefecture, Iwate Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Fukushima Prefecture, and Sendai City

*1. A conference organized by the United Nations to discuss international strategies on disaster risk reduction. The first and second conferences were also held in Japan (Yokohama in 1994, and Kobe in 2005). The conferences have made significant achievements, such as the formulation of the Hyogo Framework for Action at the second conference, a guideline for international initiatives for disaster risk reduction for the period from 2005 to 2015. At the third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, a new framework to follow on from the Hyogo Framework for Action is scheduled to be formulated. Website URL: http://www.bosai-sendai.jp/