Much more needs to be done to prepare for a possible “megaquake” to reduce the feared death toll of up to 300,000 people, the Japanese government said.
Earthquakes are extremely hard to predict, but in January a government panel marginally increased the probability of a major jolt in the Nankai Trough off Japan in the next 30 years to 75 to 82 percent.
The government released a new estimate in March saying that such a megaquake and subsequent tsunami could cause as many as 298,000 deaths and damages of up to US$2 trillion.
Photo: AFP
In 2014 the Japanese Central Disaster Management Council issued a preparedness plan recommending a series of measures that it hoped would reduce deaths by 80 percent.
However, the government has said that so far the steps taken would only cut the toll by 20 percent, Kyodo news agency reported, and an updated preparedness plan was issued on Tuesday.
The recommended accelerated efforts including constructing embankments and evacuation buildings, as well as holding more regular drills to improve public readiness.
“It is necessary for the nation, municipalities, companies and nonprofits to come together and take measures in order to save as many lives as possible,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told a government meeting, local media reported.
The Nankai Trough is an 800km undersea gully running parallel to Japan’s Pacific coast where one tectonic plate is subducting — slowly slipping — underneath another.
Over the past 1,400 years, megaquakes in the Nankai Trough have occurred every 100 to 200 years. The last one was in 1946.
The Japan Meteorological Association in August last year issued its first advisory warning that the likelihood had risen, but it was lifted again after a week.
Some foreign tourists have been holding off traveling to Japan this summer by unfounded fears spurred on social media that a major quake is imminent.
Causing particular concern is a manga comic reissued in 2021 that predicted a major disaster on July 5, 2025. The original 1999 edition of The Future I Saw by Ryo Tatsuki claimed a great disaster would occur in 2011, which some people believe accurately predicted the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.
The number of visitors to Japan from Hong Kong fell 11.2 percent last month year-on-year, Japan Tourism Agency data showed.
However, those from mainland China soared 44.8 percent, while arrivals from South Korea rose 11.8 percent.
Additional reporting by staff writer
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS