Japan Is Preparing For A Massive Earthquake!!

Every year on September 1st, Japan’s ministers trek by foot to the prime minister’s office to take part in a crisis simulation. Across the country, local officials and schoolchildren drill for disasters. The date marks the Great Kanto earthquake, a 7.9-magnitude tremor that struck near the capital back in 1923. The ensuing disaster killed at least 105,000 people, including around 70,000 in Tokyo itself, destroyed 370,000 homes and changed the course of Japanese history.

This year’s centenary of the disaster has occasioned much commemoration—and angst.

Japan's capital Tokyo looks nothing like it did 100 years ago when the Great Kanto Earthquake left the city in ruins. The 7.9-magnitude quake killed 105,000 people with the city, once largely made up of wooden houses, needing to be extensively rebuilt. A century later, Tokyo now boasts a skyline of glass and steel skyscrapers designed with earthquakes in mind.

According to the building’s architect, Kai Toyama, three different types of shock absorbing technology are used in this building, totalling 516 oil dampers, each of which comprise a thick cylinder 1.7 m long. Each of them works to maintain the building’s balance and strength in the event of an earthquake. The oil dampers stretch and shrink repeatedly and transform the energy of the quake into heat and release it when the building quakes.

Emergency supplies

 In 2011, the East Japan Great Earthquake caused traffic in Roppongi, stranding visitors and employees at Mori Tower at that time. "Since that time, we have been prepared to accommodate people who are trapped in the city and cannot go home," said the senior manager at Mori Building’s disaster emergency office, Takashi Hosoda. The emergency supply room is full of stacks of boxes containing vital supplies in case of another major incident. "Here we have stocks of sanitary products for women, here we have canned tuna, crackers and aluminium blankets called rescue sheets," Hosoda said. In Japan, many people stock emergency supplies at home, as do businesses and local governments. Some 400 warehouses are used by local authorities in Tokyo to stockpile 9.5 million instant meals comprising rice, noodles and biscuits as of April 2023.

Community preparations for earthquakes

There are still traditional wooden houses in Tokyo, and some are concerned about these remaining wooden houses in the downtown areas. "Many buildings in Tokyo are now more resistant to earthquakes compared with 100 years ago. But still, it is worrying," said a visitor to a photo exhibition about the Great Kanto Earthquake, Hajime Nakamura.

Some experts say despite all these efforts, Tokyo remains vulnerable to earthquakes, and even more to other natural disasters such as floods.

Japan is prone to earthquakes due to its geography along the active Pacific Ring of Fire, where multiple tectonic plates converge and interact. Experts say there is a 70 per cent chance of a major earthquake hitting Tokyo within the next 30 years.