In the event of a major earthquake in Japan, municipal authorities are ill-prepared to deal with its aftermath due to a lack of disaster recovery equipment and other resources, according to a new survey.
The survey of 134 municipalities in the country released by national broadcaster NHK on Wednesday has found that most of them also lacked funding for post-disaster management.
Municipalities are the third tier in Japan’s government structure, following the national and prefectural levels.
On Monday, the Japanese government announced its latest estimation that up to 298,000 people could die if a megaquake of about magnitude 9 were to occur along the Nankai Trough south of the country’s Pacific coast.
Another 52,000 could die of “earthquake-related” reasons, meaning that they survive the initial shock, but die later from health issues related to the evacuation.
There is a 80 per cent chance for a magnitude 8 to 9 shock earthquake to occur along the trough in the next 30 years, according to the government’s estimation in January.
