Policies of Disaster Management in Japan for Preparation for Nankai Megathrust Earthquake

Abstract

If the Nankai Megathrust Earthquake should occur, it is clear that the disaster would become a national catastrophe. To avoid the decline of Japan caused by such earthquake first of all the proactive mea-sures, improvement of prevention, and the reactive ones, strengthening of recovery, have to be taken by means of Disaster Resilience. Looking back on the his-tory of Japan, we can easily understand that Japan is a lucky country, because it has never experienced the disturbances of war or huge disaster leading to a collapse of the country. However, it has become obvious that if the Nankai Megathrust Earthquake should oc-cur, it would trigger the decline of Japan. Therefore, the Ministry of Disaster Management should be estab-lished to prevent a disaster as national catastrophe and collapse of the country. For this reason the main objec-tives and responses of the Ministry of Disaster Management are clarified in this paper. Especially in the phases of initial response and life rebuilding making use of the experiences of the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake and recognizing that the Tokai Earthquake can-not be predicted, the issuance of the emergency information of the Nankai Megathrust Earthquake and its problems are discussed and summarized.