Among Taiwan’s neighboring countries, Japan is the one that has developed the best rescue dog training techniques. On February 24, National Fire Agency (NFA) of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Japan’s Rescue Dog Trainers' Association (RDTA) to deepen cooperation and exchange between Taiwan and Japan; and to enhance teaching research, rescue dog training techniques and rescue dogs’ search and rescue capability.
Japan’s RDTA is a member of International Search and Rescue Dog Organisation (IRO) and has proactively engaged in rescue dog training and its chairperson, Mr. Hidehiro Murase, is also the Asia representative of IRO. The rescue dog training capability of Japan’s RDTA is internationally affirmed.
Rescue dogs are not only an edged tool in disaster scenes, but also a very important partner for worldwide search and rescue teams. For example, the five rescue dogs trained by Taiwan managed to cooperate with Taiwan’s search and rescue team of 130 personnel dispatched to Adiyaman Province, known as the hardest-hit area of the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake occurred on February 6, to rapidly conduct the search and rescue mission, looking for missing people. Rescue dogs are not only indispensable partners for our country’s search and rescue teams, but also a pioneer in search and rescue missions
Taiwan and Japan have been solid partners and great friends. The MoU signed between NFA and Japan’s RDTA this time will open a new chapter for Taiwan and Japan’s in-depth exchange on rescue dog training. In the future, our country will not only obtain Japan’s newest rescue dog training techniques, but also further enhance our rescue dog assessment and training and establish a domestic and foreign communication and exchange platform for rescue dog related affairs. This will bring substantial benefits to our country in terms of promoting our cooperation with worldwide rescue dog organizations.