Japan: Tokyo Bay to get tsunami upgrade

Ministry officials announced the development of a basic infrastructure plan to brace Tokyo for a huge tsunami projected to strike on a 1,000-year cycle, calling for more rigorous measures than Central Disaster Prevention Council's ones which focus on reinforcing structures against the type of tsunami that only strike every 100 years or so. According to the Japan Times, the panel, part of the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry's Kanto Regional Development Bureau, will publicise details of the policies on March 6.

"If Tokyo Bay, a key economic center, suffers damage, it would also impact Japan as a whole," said Tatsuhiko Ikeda, a professor at Yokohama National University who heads the panel, calling for disaster preventive measures against tsunami bigger than those on which the government plan for the entire country is based.