Japan lifted on Thursday a warning that a “megaquake” potentially causing colossal damage and loss of life could strike, with the government telling people to “go back to normal.”
The week-old alert that such a catastrophe might hit the archipelago of 125 million people prompted thousands to cancel holidays and stock up on essentials, emptying shelves in some stores.
Japan’s weather agency said last Thursday that the likelihood of a megaquake was “higher than normal” following a magnitude 7.1 jolt that day that injured 15 people.
That was a particular kind of tremor known as a subduction megathrust quake, which has occurred in pairs in the past and can unleash massive tsunamis.
Slower Trains
Japan’s government has said the next magnitude 8-9 megaquake along the Nankai Trough has a roughly 70 percent probability of striking within the next 30 years.
In the worst-case scenario, 300,000 lives could be lost, experts estimate, while some engineers say the damage could reach $13 trillion, with infrastructure wiped out.
However, experts said the risk was still low, and the agriculture and fisheries ministry urged people on Saturday “to refrain from excessively hoarding goods.”
The statement came after supermarkets put limits on purchases, including bottled water, as demand soared online for emergency items such as portable toilets and preserved food.
Some bullet trains reduced their speed as a precaution, and nuclear plants were instructed by authorities to double-check their disaster preparations.
‘Convincingly Scary’
The Japan Meteorological Association warning was the first under new rules drawn up after a 2011 quake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.
The 2011 tsunami sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst post-war catastrophe and the world’s most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
With AFP
