ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 for global promotion of understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk was adopted in Sendai on 16 March 2015 (Wahlström 2015 and Sassa 2015). The partnerships is signed by 22 global stakeholders at present. The role of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) has been replaced by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 and the acronym ISDR is not used anymore. From 1 May 2019, the name of UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction) was replaced by UNDRR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction). Due to these changes, we have replaced the name of the ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015–2025 by the Sendai Landslide Partnerships 2015–2025 for global promotion of understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk (SLP2015–2025). The Partnerships was supported by signatory partners, many landslide scientists, engineers, and policymakers of the world landslide community. Major outcomes of this partnerships are an open access book The ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships 2015-2025 that presents the progress of scientific results and joint efforts for landslide risk reduction, which was published for the Fourth World Landslide Forum (Sassa et al. 2017), and two volumes of the ISDR-ICL Landslide Interactive Teaching tools with the open access PPT and PDF and video tools in 2018 that provide the most advanced teaching tools for landslide risk reduction (Sassa et al. 2018a, b). The most important outcome is the planning of the Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020 to continue the initiative of SLP2015–2025 after 2025, 2030, and beyond (Sassa 2017a).

2020 is the midpoint of SLP2015–2025. The Fifth World Landside Forum (WLF5) in 2020 has the subtitle of “Implementing and Monitoring the Sendai Landslide Partnerships 2015–2025—Voluntary contribution to the Sendai Framework 2015–2030 and the Agenda 2030-Sustainable Development Goals” (Sassa 2017b, 2018). In order to present the most updated scientific progress and technological development, three types of publication will be edited and published for the WLF5.

  1. 1.

    A thematic issue of Landslides Journal Sendai Landslide Partnerships 2015–2025 (ISDR-ICL Sendai Partnerships). The editorial Board of Landslides is calling for the contribution of papers for this thematic issue. One paper has been already accepted and is soon to be published online. The authors of the accepted papers in this thematic issue are invited to orally present their research as a keynote speaker in a suitable session, or to present their research as WLF5 invited lecturer in the session of the Sendai Landslide Partnerships 2015–2025. Review process and standard of all submitted papers in the thematic issue of the journal will be exactly same as for the regular issue of Landslides. Those papers which will be accepted, but cannot be included in the thematic issue in time will be published in one of the following regular issues. The deadline for submission of papers to the thematic issue is 31 March 2020.

  1. 2.

    Seven to eight volumes of full color books Understanding and Reducing Landslide Disaster Risk will be published under 8 themes. Length of the papers in those books is limited to 6 pages, but keynote speakers (one speaker is selected for each half day session) can publish 12 page long paper.

  • Theme 1: Sendai Landslide Partnerships 2015–2025 and Kyoto Landslide Commitment 2020

  • Theme 2: Hazard and vulnerability mapping and zonation

  • Theme 3: Monitoring and early warning

  • Theme 4: Testing, modeling, and risk assessment

  • Theme 5: Education and capacity development for risk management and risk governance

  • Theme 6: Catastrophic landslides: causes and consequences

  • Theme 7: Frontiers of landslide science and innovative practices

  • Theme 8: Specific topics in landslide science and applications

The deadline of submission of papers to full color books is 31 December 2019.

  1. 3.

    CD-book The Fifth World Landslide Forum will be edited and uploaded in WLF5 web for free downloading. One paper consists of one-page title and abstract and 2 PPT slides per page. The page length of one paper is limited to 6–10 pages.

Proposal for CD session is open until 30 September 2019. We encourage potential session coordinators to propose sessions using the proposal form available on the webpage listed below with the list of more than 6 speakers and their tentative titles (http://wlf5.iplhq.org/call-for-session-proposal/).

Papers of CD sessions are reviewed by CD session coordinators. The deadline of each CD session will be decided by each CD session individually. The deadline of the submission of ready to print papers by the CD session coordinators to WLF5 secretariat is 31 July 2020.

WLF5 organizing committee called for the invited speakers with due date on 15 December 2018. The list of 369 accepted speakers together with all planned sessions and session coordinators was published in the 2019 February issue of Landslides (Sassa et al. 2019a). WLF5 organizing committee called for preliminary registration for speakers of WLF5. The number of registered speakers who have completed the Preliminary Registration form on the WLF5 WEB, http://wlf5.iplhq.org/speaker-registration/, has reached 441 as of 23 May 2019. The list of name/office/country/tentative title of each registered speaker is published in News/Kyoto Commitment of this issue (Sassa et al. 2019b).

Further preliminary registration is open until 30 September 2019. Thereafter, the early registration of WLF5 will start from 1 October 2019. The list of registered speakers in each theme is the most basic data to make a WLF5 program at the WLF5 Organizing Committee meeting to be held on 17 September 2019 in Paris. We will request those who will be ready to participate in WLF5 to complete the preliminary registration form by 15 August 2019.

Call for partners of KLC2020

The Kyoto 2020 Commitment for global promotion of understanding and reducing landslide disaster risk is planned to launch on 3 November 2020 during WLF5 (Sassa 2019). A total of 100 ICL member organizations (full members, associates, and supporters) and partners of SLP2015–2025 and new organizations which are involved and are playing important role in landslide risk reduction are invited to join the KLC2020. The final draft will be approved and the signing by the first group are planned at Salle IX, Fontenoy Building, UNESCO Headquarters, in Paris on 18 September 2019.

Call for sponsors

WLF5 wishes to support excellent/young researchers, engineers, and government officers from developing countries. The speakers who need supports are shown with mark # in the list of registered speakers. An available fund is shared to registered speakers with mark #. The current financial supporters, as sponsors, include seven companies shown in the WLF5 Information Board at the end of this issue. The proposal of further sponsors for WLF 5 are encouraged and appreciated for the promotion of wide variety of participants from all over the world.