Tokyo still lacks enough places to accommodate the many people who would be left stranded if a huge earthquake were to hit the Japanese capital.
The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake killed around 105,000 people in and around Tokyo. Many of those deaths occurred in fires where people had evacuated, underlining the importance of ensuring safe evacuation strategies in densely populated areas.
"Some 38,000 people died in less than an hour," Nagoya University visiting professor Masayuki Takemura said, referring to the site of a deadly fire where an army clothing depot once stood in the current Sumida Ward. About 40,000 people had evacuated to the site just after the quake.