Japan holds annual earthquake drill, first since March disaster - Telegraph.co.uk

The government conducted drills based on the scenario of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake striking Tokyo, which would have catastrophic consequences given that the capital and its surrounding prefectures account for over a quarter of Japan's population and about a third of its economy. The March earthquake measured 9.0.

More than a thousand people participated in exercises in central Tokyo's Yoyogi Park, where military helicopters buzzed overhead, police bikes sped past and medical personnel tended to people trapped under a damaged car in a mock emergency situation.

Outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan, whose support ratings plummeted due to disapproval of his administration's response to the March disaster, held a mock press conference in which he told the public that the government was doing its utmost to minimise the damage.

"It feels more real, that this place could actually be filled by people unable to get home," said Ikuo Suzuki, an official at Yoyogi Park, which is a designated evacuation area in the event of a major earthquake.

Preparedness exercises included experiencing various disaster situations, such as boarding a specially designed elevator that shakes violently as if in a strong earthquake.

"It has a tenser atmosphere than I expected," said Masako Yoshida, a mother of two who was participating for the first time. "I remembered how on that day (March 11), I was separated from my children. Transport had stopped."

The police also conducted exercises in which they blocked traffic at about 100 locations in Tokyo to practice ensuring the passage of emergency vehicles.

The preparedness drills are held every year on Sept. 1, the anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake that killed 140,000 people in the Tokyo area.

The government forecasts that a 7.3 magnitude quake directly under Tokyo would kill up to 11,000 people, injure about 210,000, force 7 million to evacuate and cost the $5 trillion economy around $1 trillion in damages – five times the estimated damages from the March 11 disaster.

Kishie Shigekawa, a professor of environmental disaster studies at Fuji Tokoha University, said progress has been made in improving Tokyo buildings' anti-quake reinforcements, after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in western Japan took so many lives due to lack of structural strength in that city's buildings.

But she warned that post-quake fires were an urgent issue given Tokyo's dense population and crowded architectural landscape.

"It inevitably takes time, but long-term city planning to reduce loss of life ... is something we need to keep on pushing for," Shigekawa said.

View the original article here

Japan's GDP shrinks annual 1.3 percent in 2nd quarter - Vancouver Sun

Japan's economy shrank 1.3 percent on an annualized basis in the second quarter of the year compared to the January-March quarter, as the disruption in the supply of key parts led to a decline in exports and as private consumption remained sluggish in the wake of the March 11 disaster, the government said Monday.

Although the gross domestic product marked the third straight quarterly decline in inflation-adjusted real terms, the rate of decline in the April-June quarter was smaller than the annualized 3.6 percent decline posted in the previous quarter, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report.

The latest result corresponds to a 0.3 percent slide from the previous quarter.

As economic activity appears to be recovering, the nation's economy is highly likely to expand in the next quarter, according to economists.

It is the first time the GDP has experienced three consecutive quarterly declines since the four straight quarterly contractions starting in April-June 2008 that were propelled by the collapse of the U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September that year.

With the disruption of the supply of key parts following the disaster, the output of automobiles and other products plunged, resulting in a 4.9 percent decline in exports.

Meanwhile, private-sector housing construction fell 1.9 percent, as construction was stopped or housing starts were postponed, mainly in the disaster-affected areas.

Private consumption, which accounts for about 60 percent of GDP, slipped 0.1 percent in the April-June quarter, as sales of automobiles dropped and people apparently avoided travel or dining out.

But the rate of decline was smaller than the 0.6 percent drop posted in the previous quarter.

Meanwhile, corporate capital investment rose 0.2 percent, the first rise in two quarters, as companies, which had put production on hold shortly after the March disaster, gradually increased their output of materials, equipment and machinery.

In addition, there was a lull in reducing inventories following the decline in production, and stocks of such durable goods as cars began building up, pushing the real GDP up by 0.3 percent.

Public investment increased 3 percent, the first growth in six quarters, due to accelerated construction of temporary housing for disaster victims.

"We can expect to realize relatively high growth in the latter half of this year," Kaoru Yosano, state minister for economic and fiscal policy, said at a news conference. "We want to pay particular attention to the possible impact on our economy of a growing sense of uncertainty in the world economy and the rising strength of the yen."

© Copyright (c) McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

View the original article here