Apanel of the Cabinet Office on May 28 issued a final report on measures to cope with the effects of a massive earthquake expected to occur in the Nankai Trough, which lies in the seabed in the Pacific Ocean off Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, running from Suruga Bay off Shizuoka Prefecture to the Hyuga-Nada sea off Miyazaki Prefecture.
It is important for the central and local governments, business enterprises, local communities and households to adopt whatever steps they can take to reduce damage from the quake and tsunami caused by it. It is expected that the quake and tsunami will kill up to 323,000 people and cause ¥220 trillion in economic damage.
It is also estimated that one week after the major temblor, there could be up to 9.5 million evacuees, with 5 million of them staying in evacuation shelters.