The Noda Cabinet on June 19 adopted a 2012 white book on disaster prevention that deals with not only the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis but also major earthquakes expected to occur close to the Tokyo metropolitan area and in the Nankai Trough, a 900-km subduction zone off the Pacific coast, stretching from the Tokai region to Shikoku.
The white paper pointed to the inadequacies in past assumptions of damage from major disasters, preparations to deal with them, and rescue, support and reconstruction activities in the wake of such disasters. It stressed the importance of making "pessimistic," rather than "optimistic," assumptions as to future major disasters.
The white book reasonably stresses that "beyond expectations" should never be used in future disasters as an excuse for unpreparedness. But it should have examined more carefully why the inappropriate assumptions about major disasters were adopted. In addition, its proposals for rectifying the defects are not strong enough.