Visit by Prof. Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
On 15 May 2026, Professor Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), visited the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and met with Director-General NOMURA Ryoichi.
Professor Saulo expressed her appreciation for JMA's longstanding contributions to WMO, including its operation of various global and regional centers, and delivered a presentation on WMO activities emphasizing the need to accelerate the United Nations’ (UN) Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative. Focus was placed on the importance of closing resilience gaps among Members, addressing capacity disparities, and leveraging emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), as key opportunities.
Mr. Nomura highlighted the fundamental role JMA has played in the development of WMO's global infrastructure since its early years, reaffirming Japan's continued commitment to multilateral cooperation under the WMO framework and emphasizing its intention to play a leading role in further advancing global meteorological infrastructure for the public good in the international community across sectors. Mr. Nomura also covered, as a recent significant achievement, the simplification and restructuring of JMA's warning service system into a five-level framework. This reform improves alignment with alert levels set by the Cabinet Office and enhances clarity for both disaster risk reduction (DRR) stakeholders and the general public.
It was noted by both sides that this approach represents a best practice for promoting timely emergency actions, and could be shared with other countries through WMO.
The meeting was followed by a courtesy visit by Professor Saulo to KANEKO Yasushi, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.(URL: https://www.mlit.go.jp/page/kanbo01_hy_010864.html)
