Natural Hazard

What occurs to you soon with natural hazards in Japan is earthquakes. As I explain more specially in the hereafter chapter, since Japan is placed on the soil of earthquake frequent points. Actually within the most vivid memories, there was a major earthquake with the epicenter around Kobe in 1995 involving more that 6,000 causalities and in the Kanto area there was the Great Kanto earthquake in 1923. Because the frequency seems to be countless including small land jolts, it’s apparent that Japan is a land of earthquakes.

The natural hazards in Japan are not only earthquakes but also typhoons, floods, tsunami, volcanoes and so on. Geographically, if you see a globe, you can immoderately recognize where Japan is. The small island bears the brunt of the influence from the huge Pacific Ocean. Tropical typhoons, for instance, which are born near the equator, hit Japan many times every year with the trade winds. Connected with that, concentrated rains brought by typhoons cause floods along the rivers. Although the soil of the forest-rich country, Japan used to absorb rains in the case, it can’t afford to sustain the flood preventive functions any more because of mountain developments. Back to earthquakes, there are some plates underneath the Japanese land, which cause earthquakes. Triggered by the land jolts, volcanoes and tsunami come along with them. Seeing the verities of natural phenomena, Japan has no less natural hazards than other countries.

Japan has had the culture that is harmonious with nature, not trying to conquer it. The Japanese have been adapting the good parts of natural environments into the life. Not by changing nature, they have thought of how to lead their life. Symbolically If you go to a Japanese old temple in Kyoto or somewhere and look at its garden, you will find that the life of the Japanese people is not apart form nature even in that small world. In another aspect, there is Japanese beauty in living with nature.

Today’s people, however, tend to make light of nature influenced heavily by rapid-growing modernization. Nature is regarded not as something to live with but to utilize for their own convenient life. The on-going developments of beautiful forests, for example, are said to be the fundamental causes for floods. Reclaiming lands from sea could also destroy the marine ecosystems. The destruction of the ecosystem is actually happening in the Japanese seas. There is an argument that developing nature is indispensable for human modernization and natural recoveries put it back for functioning well in the natural system. But nature has limits to accept the natural destruction by humans. Time will come when we ask for it.