A 9.0-magnitude temblor with an epicenter in the Nankai Trough off central and western Japan would cause about ¥220 trillion in damage, more than twice the entire fiscal 2013 budget, a Cabinet Office panel said Monday.
While the figure is far larger than the ¥17 trillion in damage wrought by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the ¥10 trillion caused by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, the estimate does not include the cost of fallout if nuclear power plants are damaged in a Nankai temblor, which seismologists predict could occur in the not-too-distant future.
As it is, the ¥17 trillion figure for the March 11, 2011, calamity doesn't cover the costs of the three reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 plant.