Japan faces more frequent disasters

Japan faces more frequent disasters

Wow, truly prophetic here! (Not!)

It's typhoon season, and based upon yearly averages alone, and including the fact that the ground is already very loose from all the recent rains, mudslides, triggered by frequent earthquakes, and potentially more rain, somewhat changed weather patterns, put altogether and you have the recipes for "more frequent disasters"

He did not elaborate on what steps the government could take.

Outside of responding better, and possibly putting assets in strategic locations that are prone to or are potential disaster areas there is little he can say.

There is little the government can do to prevent natural disasters from occurring, but they CAN improve their responses.

This is really a tough call.... worst weather disaster in 36 years. Do you go all out and spend billions and continue to grow the country's national debt, or try to work on things that are doable but less expensive.

Chief secretary Soga admitted that Global warming is the cause of these weather mishaps. But offers no solution or even a gesture. Dozens dead and millions in emergency shelters but that's a Shogani moment for the Abe administration, probably have a party to celebrate their inaction.

 Dozens dead and millions in emergency shelters but that's a Shogani moment for the Abe administration, probably have a party to celebrate their inaction.

I think that there would be plenty of people happy with the "dozens" dead vs the reality of hundreds!

Not to mention that there are not "millions" in emergency shelters either!

No need to exaggerate the numbers to make a point, shite happens here, and saying stuff like this gets others to spread it around like it's a fact, and then more shite breaks loose!

Chief secretary Soga admitted that Global warming is the cause of these weather mishaps

Cricky - the article doesn't actually say that.

Sustainably reducing the world population and consumption, particularly meat and dairy consumption, which will be essential to minimising global warming, are ideas that are still anathema to most people, so I don't see a way out of this problem.

Japan spend trillions on defense system, where is the result ?

Building houses on flood plains and way up on mountains is surely asking for trouble yet it is common here.....

@Akie.... are you kidding... Japan's defense budget versus the money Japan has spent on concrete and bridges to no where along with bullet trains to under used destinations.... Where do you get your news? I'd be willing to bet that Japan.... as a Ratio, spends more than any of the G-7 Countries on infrastructure vs Military.

"more frequent" + "worst weather disaster in 36 years"

hmmmm.

raising questions about the impact of global warming

It's not called global warming. It is called climate change. Global warming is only one aspect that contributes to more powerful and frequent storms. This is what happens when you have stone-headed old men running the country. They have no idea about anything besides making their own money.

Climate change is real and has been severely impacting the earth for 2-3 decades. Where have these old fellas been that they release this report now? Oh, that's right! They have been in Japan. The island nation!

Building houses on flood plains and way up on mountains is surely asking for trouble yet it is common here.....

Where would you suggest they be built?

Not to mention that there are not "millions" in emergency shelters either!

Although a truly sad situation, I personally think the LDP is quietly happy that there is something to distract Taro away from the corruption issues. And they didn't even have to fabricate this story.

^^And that comment is not meant to disrespect the victims of these natural disasters.

Building houses on flood plains and way up on mountains is surely asking for trouble yet it is common here.....

Yep. Exactly. A little town planning would go a long way.

Saving lives was the government's biggest duty, he said. "We recognize that there's a need to look into steps we can take to reduce the damage from disasters like this even a little bit," he said.

As usual, it's nice to know that our supreme leaders are talking about thinking about the need to take steps and urge changes... maybe they could form a new committee of experts?

On the other hand, quoted from a parallel but non-political article on JT today:

"The torrential rains that hit western Japan occurred with an extremely complex mechanism, and they cannot be explained by just one reason such as global warming," said Ryuichi Kawamura, a meteorology expert and a professor at Kyushu University.

Even if you call it climate change.

I'd be willing to bet that Japan.... as a Ratio, spends more than any of the G-7 Countries on infrastructure vs Military.

US aside, I'd be willing to bet against you provided that you also factor in the ratio of taxes taken from citizens compared to other G-7 countries. Outside Tokyo, hardly anything is spent on infrastructure. Yet the military cargo planes are flying over all day, every day!

I think most of the money is vacuumed up by the so many meaningless civil workers striving to look important each day and also siphoned off to Japan Inc.

But severe weather has been battering the country more regularly in recent years, raising questions about the impact of global warming.

Do they mean 'global climate change'?

Climate change is real, except to the staunchest of deniers convinced by the plutocrats in industry, especially the plutocrats in the fossil fuels industries, their financial backers, and of course the politicians they’ve bought to push their agenda. 

Burning fossil fuels contributes to greenhouse gases. Don’t expect to see a reduction any time soon in the amount of fossil fuels burned with Abe and the LDP relying more on them, with China buying more cars, with Putin’s Russia getting stronger because of huge oil and gas reserves, and with Trump, the back to the 1950’s president pushing for reductions in environmental protection and decreased emphasis on alternatives to burning hydrocarbons.

Putin, Trump and their fellow ‘global’ elite are further entrenching the powers of the oil and gas industries. With theirs and other authoritarian capitalist regimes limiting opposition to them, the future looks way less than perfect for the environment. 

Gens X, Y and Z: what are you going to do about the mess your baby boomer grandparents and parents left.

Rebuilding after the big earthquake seven years ago, rebuilding town, roads, bridges after constant typhoons, decrease in population, fewer young working or living in the countryside, foreigners not welcome, can’t get inflation to stay positive, etc. How’s the hard fought lowering of the adult age and fighting for the change of constitution to remilitarize going to help the already present needy?

Why do things look dark?

Climate change, global warming, the recorded history of man is only a few thousand years out of billions! This is probably a natural cycle that this planet has been going through NATURALLY for billions of years. We as a species know diddly about this planet, we've only begun to scratch the surface. Maybe we have affected the planet a little bit, or maybe a lot, but you or "THEY" the so called experts don't really know. The Topic is just for people to run their mouths about, and for politicians to place blame.

The Face of this Planet has changed several times, catastrophes have come and gone, all you experts sitting in your recliners with your warrior keyboards, sending your word out as fact. What have you donated to the relief effort? Just lip service or have you actually sent something to help those who are suffering?

Be realistic JAPAN will never change its not in their fabric to be the one who sticks out!

When it comes to natural disasters, the only thing Japan is more known for than suffering from them is their inability to come up with ways to try and prevent that suffering until it's far too late. There's an attitude of, "Well, let's just hope it doesn't happen," that prevails as they build houses at the base of steep, unstable cliffs, or nuclear power plants on top of active fault lines. When the inevitable happens, it's followed by the even better known "Shouganai" attitude and talk about how Japanese are a more patient and able to cope people because of the nature of disasters here, and other such nonsense. Japan has for ages been able to look abroad and borrow here and there from nations that have taken at least some steps to deal with certain things, but haven't. Holland, for example, is a nation Japan could learn HEAPS from to try and quell some of the floodign that always occurs here during typhoons, but they haven't. In most cases the deaths are largely preventable, and it's been known for AGES the thing that caused them was unsafe: shoddy concrete Walls, lack of support for infrastructure, improper drainage, wooden structures at the bases of landslide hazards, etc.

There will always be an element of chance involved, and to an extent Indeed it just can't be helped, but there ARE things that can be done to minimize damage, and I'd like to see efforts made to do them BEFORE mass casualties and the hindsight atarimae kick in.

This is probably a natural cycle that this planet has been going through NATURALLY for billions of years.

True! The Earth is probably making more fossil fuel than we could use right at this very minute, right? Evidently, dinosaurs are still around. After all, because the Earth is flat, it's up to us to mine the oil before it falls out into space. So I hope she can produce it quick smart. Of course, burning all of that makes things a little smokey, but who cares, right?

all you experts sitting in your recliners with your warrior keyboards, sending your word out as fact.

Oh! Please don't lump me in with all those believers in armchairs. After all, it's those pesky scientists that send out the most facts. The people in armchairs can't even make up their own facts, they just repeat what the scientists have said. Science clearly can't be trusted.

As mentioned on another post, invest in a helicopter, it is the only way.

It's time to people think that the global warming is man influence and from those statistics find measures to improve environmental resources. The southern waters are too warm to accumulate tons of clouds to fall of them around Japan or northern Asian regions. People should react what is really happening or more disasters will happen and it will be too late. This recently phenomena of few decades to current time is very abnormal and all the scientific experts should clearly expose the reasons why all of those calamities coming to Japan all at once! Natural incidents aren't the right answers for those calamities, and God knows!

Stop concreting over everything. Stop removing trees and other vegetation. Stop building on flood plains and on mountain slopes. Any builder that wants to build home sin these places should have planning permission denied everytime. People should stop buying homes in flood planes and on mountain slopes.

These are the areas of studies that might contribute to minimizing landslides. They have to do with trees and their different root systems; some are interlocking and hold soil better than others.

It is said that cedars and other quick growing conifers are overplanted in Japan. A grove of beech trees (橅 ブナ) - slow growing - would not slide off the side of a mountain easily, arborists have hypothesized.

In short, cedars are tall trees, if miniaturized, look like a negi (ネギ) or a leek/green onion. The roots are fibrous and shallow. An oak with a tap root like a carrot goes down deep into bedrock. The roots of some trees are gnarled and crack the bedrock.

Areas of studies:

1) Root System Architecture of Trees Growing on Different Sloping Conditions

2) Using Three-dimensional Plant Root Architecture in Models of Shallow-slope Stability

3) Mechanical Resistance of Different Tree Species to Rockfall

4) Desirable Plant root traits for protecting natural and engineered slopes against landslides

Nature is nature but we have the capacity to limit its damages.

In defence of these people, they live on a massive island with only mountains and flood plains, and have probably the greatest number of disastrous seismic and weather events. I think on average they recover better than most places, with no looting or panicking.

The old farts in the J government are dragging the chain on many things, but Japan isn't as backward on climate policy as, say, the US or Australia (, where I'm from - we voted against a carbon tax in 2013, wooh yeah, people power!..?).

There's an old Irish-Australian bush poem that would tease us for our hand-wringing:

And every creek a banker ran,

And dams filled overtop;

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,

"If this 'ere rain doesn't stop."

But now this poem is dated, as we might all possibly be bloody-well ruined if we have indeed busted the climate.

Sources

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Said_Hanrahan

People should stop buying homes in flood planes and on mountain slopes.

But there aren't that many places that fall outside of those two categories. I think more engineering is the only way forward.

I don't want to defend the stupid projects that many posters like to target. But there has been a continual and real improvement over decades to the general infrastructure in Japan and its ability to resist natural catastrophes. I remember the 1982 rains that caused so many deaths in Kyushu. At the time I was shocked by the numbers. I can't be sure, but these recent rains seem much heavier, but have probably caused relatively fewer deaths. Rather than telling Japan how to do things better, I think many posters might do better if they looked and learned.

dear's I am Tomuch bothering deadly Rain hit in south west great japan The announced metrological deparment's Take precautions The affected area Greatest people's and department's and more will save The people's mainly doesn't live near by mounttain, mug slide's and Rain falls mountain's if won properties livinghoods metrology department's announced please take immediately shifting to safe area's i am every day praying to god for great japanese people's and world people's long life without any disease happy life on the earth and soeedy Recovery The hits area in Great nihon.