 Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, our Vice Minister, Mr. Masahiro Yoshizaki, had to fly back to Tokyo last night, so I make a speech on behalf of the Vice Minister. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, your Excellencies, Honorable Participants and Dear Colleagues, please allow me to express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation for the efforts made by ITU Secretary General Dr. Hamadun Ture, Mr. Burahima Sanu, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, and other members of the ITU Secretariat, as well as for all the hospitality by the host nation that united Arab Emirates who helped to make this conference possible. I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to make this speech to you. On March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by the Great East Japan earthquake, which caused tremendous damage to human lives, transportation systems, electricity infrastructure, and telecommunication networks. Communication networks were lost because of blackout, destruction of infrastructure, and in addition malfunction of telecommunication networks caused by communication traffic congestion. The ITU kindly offered 153 satellite mobile phones to us that time. They played very important roles in essential communication for various parties such as medical teams and disaster headquarters in the affected area. Japan also received other wide range of support from all over the world. Japan will never forget our appreciation to you. After that event, our policy emphasis was put on disaster prevention and disaster preparedness. In this regard, we are prepared to cooperate with other countries sharing our experiences, knowledge, technologies, and capacity building. In March 2013, Japan hosted ITU-DSG two rapporteur group meetings on disaster preparedness mitigation and response. In the same month, Japan and ITU co-hosted a symposium on disaster communications in Sendai, the city hit by the Great Earthquake. In this regard, we recognize that the new initiative by ITU, smart sustainable development model SSDM, with measures against disasters in scope, is a very important effort. ITU-D holds out broadband for sustainable development as the main theme of ITU 2014. Japan is determined to work with ITU to realize better access to broadband, better solution to socio-economic agenda utilizing ICT, coupled with sufficient security measures in every corner of the world. We will continue to be active in cooperative activities such as technology transfer, capacity building programs, and research and development. Japan strongly believes that WTDC 2014 will mark an important milestone for the sustainable global development in the unprecedented era of information technology innovation. We look forward to cooperating with you and supporting the chair for the success of this important conference. Thank you very much for your attention.