Some 18 years after the Great Hanshin Earthquake mangled Kobe and just two years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami required U.S. help to save Tohoku, the land ministry is still making grand plans to counter the next natural disaster.

Its next big idea? Tracking mobile phones and social networking posts.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry plans to collect data from people's phones and SNS accounts to "track disaster information" if the feared Nankai Trough earthquake strikes off the coast of central and western Japan, a draft interim report said Sunday.