With some 2 million land mines believed to be contaminating around 174,000 square kilometers in Ukraine, Japan is bringing both its diplomatic and technological skills to bear as it seeks to reduce the threat in the war-torn nation.

Japan will host an international workshop this fall focusing on mine clearance efforts in Ukraine. After that, it is set to chair the 22nd conference of the parties to the Ottawa Convention — the 1997 agreement that prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines — when it meets in Geneva in December.

At the same time, the Japanese government, private companies and academics are using both cutting-edge technology and more traditional approaches to clearing large areas of mines and unexploded ordnance in an effort to save lives in Ukraine.

Japanese companies have decades of experience in this sector. Komatsu Ltd, the Tokyo-based manufacturer of heavy construction equipment, has been cooperating with NGOs in Cambodia since 1999 to clear paddy fields and the countryside of mines. The company has since expanded similar programs to Laos, Afghanistan and Angola.

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