Tag - disaster

 
 

DISASTER

Naoshi Hirata, chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday evening.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2024
Japan issues first-ever alert over risk of Nankai Trough megaquake
It is believed that the chance of a major earthquake occurring in the Nankai Trough is relatively higher than usual, the weather agency said.
A tsunami advisory, shown in yellow, was issued following an earthquake in Kyushu on Tuesday afternoon.
JAPAN
Aug 8, 2024
Tsunami advisory lifted after strong quake jolts Kyushu
The 7.1 magnitude quake, measuring a weak 7 on Japan's intensity scale, triggered small tsunami waves in some areas.
Map exercises for evacuations, simulating a situation in which an armed attack is expected, are conducted at the Okinawa Prefectural Government office in Naha on Jan. 30.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2024
Japan works on evacuation plans in event of Taiwan contingency
Issues such as stockpiling food and being able to swiftly evacuate all residents of the islands in Okinawa remain as Japan considers various contingencies.
Road signs are tilted over a road damaged by the New Year's Day earthquake in Nishiaraya, Ishikawa Prefecture. A new report, part of a long-term assessment, was swiftly drawn up in response to the 7.6-magnitude quake that struck the Noto Peninsula area, so that coastal municipalities can improve their disaster reduction measures.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 3, 2024
Government reveals 25 offshore active faults on country's Sea of Japan side
The active faults are located off the coast stretching from the northern area of Hyogo Prefecture to the Joetsu area of Niigata Prefecture.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shakes hands with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol as U.S. President Joe Biden looks on alongside other members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders week in San Francisco in November.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 31, 2024
Japan to co-lead crisis response branch of the global trade initiative IPEF
Japan will be vice chair of the Crisis Response Network, a body under the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.
Inscriptions on a disaster monument in Miyako, Iwate Prefecture (left), can be seen clearly when illuminated using a smartphone app "Hikari Takuhon" developed by researcher Hideyuki Uesugi.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jul 30, 2024
Number of natural disaster monuments on state map increasing in Japan
Stone monuments inscribed with descriptions of the damage caused by past natural disasters and lessons from forerunners have been erected since ancient times.
Disaster response vehicles parked at a roadside rest station at Noto Airport in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 17.
JAPAN
Jul 28, 2024
Japan to pick more roadside stations for disaster relief
The ministry plans to increase the number of such roadside stations to about 100 from the current 39 so that each of the country's 47 prefectures will have one or two.
Lamposts and other signs throughout Hirogawa, Wakayama Prefecture, display warnings, evacuation routes and measurements of height above sea level. The town has been hit by eight tsunami in its recorded history.
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Jul 21, 2024
Why Japanese researchers are looking to submarine cables for faster tsunami warnings
While Japan boasts one of the world's most sophisticated earthquake and tsunami detection systems, gaps still remain.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo last month.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 9, 2024
Kishida aims for hospital ship operations from fiscal year 2025
The envisioned ships would evacuate disaster victims while giving them medical treatment and stay based at ports near disaster-hit areas to provide care.
Children sit near a flooding seawall during high tide in Serua, Fiji, in 2022.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2024
Japan to share weather data with Pacific island nations
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce the plan at the July 16-18 summit in Tokyo with Pacific island leaders.
Cardboard beds at an evacuation shelter in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 31
JAPAN / Society
Jun 28, 2024
Japan calls for beds to be set up as soon as evacuation centers open
Some evacuation centers did not use temporary beds following the Noto Peninsula earthquake due to difficulties changing the facility layouts.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has recently said that Japan was in the severest security environment since the end of World War II.
BUSINESS
Jun 20, 2024
Japan's Kawasaki Heavy to make ventilators for underground shelters
The announcement comes a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a deal with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that included a mutual defense pledge.
A person walks among the giant columns supporting the Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel in Saitama Prefecture.
PODCAST / deep dive
Jun 20, 2024
Tokyo underground: The city beneath our feet
Join us this week on Deep Dive as we discuss with Alex K.T. Martin the expansive subterranean world of Tokyo’s ever-changing underground.
For hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year, heat is deadly. In the U.S., it takes more lives than hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes or floods.
COMMENTARY
Jun 20, 2024
Heat waves are deadlier than hurricanes. Make them ‘disasters.’
For hundreds of thousands of people around the world every year, heat is deadly. In the U.S., it takes more lives than hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes or floods.
Internal affairs minister Takeaki Matsumoto bows after a bill to revise the local autonomy law was approved at a plenary meeting of the Upper House on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 19, 2024
Japan enacts bill for emergency state power over local governments
The purpose is to make sure that Japan can respond quickly to incidents not presupposed by existing laws.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a meeting on the restoration of quake-hit areas on the Noto Peninsula, held at the Prime Minister's Office on Monday.
JAPAN
Jun 10, 2024
Government team calls for preparations for smooth disaster relief
A report from the team has requested cooperation with the private sector to smooth the way for transportation of relief goods.
Takashi Tonegawa, a senior researcher at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2024
Japanese agency observes tsunami with submarine optical cable
The cable extends some 100 kilometers southward from an area near Cape Muroto in Kochi Prefecture.
Digital transformation minister Taro Kono says the government plans to use My Number ID cards to track the evacuation status of disaster victims.
JAPAN
Jun 4, 2024
Japan to utilize My Number cards at evacuation centers
"We want to facilitate the response of local governments and residents in the event of a disaster," digital transformation minister Taro Kono said.
Support staff dispatched by power firms work to restore electrical equipment in an area hit by the Noto Peninsula earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jun 4, 2024
Major Japan power firms boost cooperation on disaster response
The electric power sector has established a framework to streamline the dispatch of support personnel and facilitate mutual aid to cover restoration expenses.
The view from the top of one of the five 70-meter-deep shafts spread across the tunnel system of the ¥230 billion Metropolitan Area Outer Underground Discharge Channel.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jun 3, 2024
Tokyo underground: Exploring what lies beneath the world’s largest city
Tokyo has developed a massive network of underground infrastructure to support its population, a system being put to the test by extreme weather.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.