Japan: Seismic risk - from shaken to awakened

The Financial Times writes that the Great Earthquake of Japan has made officials to rethink how to mitigate the effects of disasters. The article cites scientists who fear that the Greater Tokyo megapolis could be vulnerable, and quote Masaharu Nakagawa, Japan’s minister of state for disaster management, who said: "We have now started fundamentally to recognize that what is important is to create a system rooted in a the idea of disaster reduction".

The article also reports that cities are about to compete for setting up a second capital as concerns over Tokyo's centralized power may be disrupted, should Tokyo be hit by an earthquake or a tsunami. It further asserts that with government finances stretched by weak economic growth and an ageing and declining population, effective disaster mitigation will require active involvement by the private sector.

Finally, Kimuro Meguro, director of the International Centre for Urban Safety Engineering at Tokyo University warns that 'the most important thing is ‘disaster imagination'. Too many people in our nation cannot imagine what might happen to them and if you can’t imagine something, you cannot prepare for it.'