Northeast Asia disaster management reference handbook (2026)

The goal of this handbook is to provide background infromation for personnel responding to a disasters during which they may interact with government or citizen responders from China, Japan, South Korea, or Taiwan. A large-scale, multinational disaster response in the Indo-Pacific will involve responders from the region’s major political and economic players. This handbook provides disaster management (DM) profiles for the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan, and the Republic of Korea (South Korea or ROK). 

By examining the hazards to which they are exposed, the vulnerabilities within their societies, and the domestic capacity they have developed, this publication shares insight into the types and scopes of response capabilities they can deliver as part of a response to a disaster elsewhere in the world. All three countries have developed mechanisms and capabilities that they deploy to support a disaster-affected state that has appealed for aid. However, their processes for determining where, when, and how they will respond differ and affect how they interact with other responders.