An estimated 80 million landmines remain buried in locations around the world, and these, along with other unexploded ordinance, pose a significant impediment to reconstruction efforts. Even several decades after the end of conflicts, these hazards continue to threaten local communities. Under this project, experts from the Japan Mine Action Service have conducted research both in Japan and abroad, and have prepared teaching materials (curriculum, lesson plans, standards, implementation plans, and evaluations) and manuals (on types, distinguishing features, characteristics, and methods of disposing of unexploded ordinance and landmines, and on warnings and evacuation procedures) for the purpose of training team leaders who can engage in humanitarian demining and explosive ordinance disposal (EOD).
Over the three years of this project, experts made 17 visits to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF), including the Ground Research & Development Command, the JGSDF Engineer School, and the JGSDF Fuji School. They conducted interviews and collected materials on various topics addressed in the teaching materials, such as safety management and procedures for handling explosives. The experts also made a visit to the Swedish EOD and Demining Centre (SWEDEC), which provides demining and EOD training to the personnel of United Nations organizations and NGOs, where they conducted interviews and gathered materials on SWEDEC's knowledge of the regions of Europe. To learn about demining and EOD in Asia, experts visited the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, which develops demining and EOD activities in the border regions between Cambodia and Thailand, and the Lao National Unexploded Ordinance Programme, an organization specializing in EOD under the umbrella of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare of Laos. These visits offered access to information not available in Japan on the various types and characteristics of unexploded ordinance, disposal methods, and team management policies. By conducting research in both Asia and Europe, specialists were able to vastly increase the information on the types of landmines and unexploded ordinance addressed in the teaching materials, and to reflect the realities of the sites they visited and the lessons learned from the interviews they conducted in those materials.
The demining and EOD teaching materials were completed this year based on the research conducted both in Japan and abroad over the past three years. The teaching materials are comprised of three volumes, on Management, Disposal Basics, and Disposal, with two supplementary manuals on Ammunition Identification and Landmine Identification. A curriculum entitled "A Course on Demining and EOD Education" was also created. These materials represent the development of a humanitarian demining and EOD education program. In the future, lectures using these teaching materials are expected to be combined with handson, on-site exercises to train leaders capable of directing and supervising demining and EOD teams.