Wednesday 18 April 2012

JAPAN'S DISASTERS & HAZARDS


                                                                      (GOD IS GREAT)
 INTRODUCTION:
In this paper the country about which the discussion is going to be happened is Japan. Ancient name of Japan was “Nippon”.  The country is situated in eastern Asia, demarcating the easternmost limit of Asia continent. Japan is one of the smallest countries of the world. This is a first world country and tremendously developed in technologies and modernization. Japan has world’s fastest economy. This tiny island country is 1/10th of the size of India, but hundreds times developed than our country. But in spite of this tremendous development in technologies and other fields Japan is not free from devastating natural hazards, severe calamities caused by both nature and human. These natural hazards harm Japan very much in several surges of attack with the passage of time. There are several forms of these disasters in different times. Nowadays, human driven disasters are happening more rather than natural hazards. No doubt Japan is very much developed but somehow it is felt that nature sometimes teaches some lessons to the inhabitants of this that, whatever the development comes humans are always the jokers to her; she can both construct and destruct their deeds on the dint of her own hegemony. Here the main discussion is going to be on the natural hazards of Japan and human interventions.  So in short, Japan is a country of natural hazards rather than a country of technologies. Japan is located in an area where three or four plates forming the earth’s crust overlap and earthquakes tend to occur frequently. Thus, the country is a part of the circum-Pacific seismic zone.
After the great Kanto earthquake in 1923, which is described later, an earthquake research institute was set up at the University of Tokyo. Roadside trees were planted to prevent fires from spreading. Earthquake-resistant construction and the latest damage-prevention techniques were employed in high-rise buildings.
The Niigata earthquake in 1964 was characterized by a liquefaction phenomenon. In one well-known case, a four-story apartment building at Kawagishi in Niigata literally toppled over on to its side (United Nations, 1989).

Following an earthquake off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture on June 12, 1978, the building standards for concrete block walls were strengthened. By installing submarine seismometers and strain gauges, research on precursory phenomena of big earthquakes is being conducted. Perhaps most importantly, in the Toukai district where a severe earthquake with a magnitude of grade 8 is predicted sometime in the future, a 24-hour monitoring network utilizing densely-installed submarine seismometers has been set up, and a system for declaring a state of emergency has been established. It is also possible that an earthquake with a hypocenter just below the southern Kanto district might occur before that expected in the Toukai. The magnitude of this earthquake is 7. Because detecting precursory phenomena of a tremor of this size is difficult, the prediction system is behind that in the Toukai area.

LITERATURE REVIEW:
1.   Earthquake 2011 Tohoku; NOAA; 2011; pp- 1 to 28.

2.   Sasaki Hiroshi, Yamakawa Shuji; Natural Hazards in Japan; Chapter 8; Department of Geosystem Sciences; College of Humanities and Sciences; Nihon University; and National Institute of Agro-Environmental Science; 2010;Japan.


3.   Nanayama Futoshi, Shigeno Kiyoyuki; Inflow &     outflow facies from the 1993 tsunami in southwest              Hokkaido; Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, Site 7, Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8567, Japan; received 26 October 2004; received in revised form 7 December 2005; accepted 13 December 2005.


4.   Roberts. D. Richards, Waiser. J. Marley, Hadas Ora, Macintyre Sally; Relaxation of Phosphorus Limitation Due to Typhoon-Induced Mixing in Two Morphologically Distinct Basins of Lake Biwa, Japan; Limnology & Oceanography; Volume 43; pp- 1023 to 1036; 1998; Japan.


5.   Kim Hong Joo, Ho Hoi Chang, Sui Hsiung Chung; Circulation features associated with the record-breaking typhoon landfall on Japan in 2004; Geophysical Research Letters; Volume 32, L14713, doi:10.1029/2005GL022494; Japan; 2005.

6.   Sasakawa Kinto; Japan Natural Disaster; NOAA; Japan; 2006.

7.   Onda Yuchi; Seepage Erosion & Its implication to the formation of amphitheatre valley heads: A CASE STUDY AT OBARA, JAPAN; Laboratory of Forest Hydrology and Erosion Control Engineering, School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University; volume 19; pp- 627 to 640; Japan; 1994.

8.   Trenhaile . S. Alen; The width of shore platform in Britain, Canada & Japan; Journal of Coastal research; Volume 15; pp- 355 to 364; 1999.

9.   Petts. G. E; Water management in Japan- Case of Biwa Lake; The Geographical Journal; Volume 154; pp- 367 to 376; 1988.

10.                     Hatori Tokutaro; Dimensions and Geographic Distribution of Sources of Tsunami near Japan; Bulletin of earthquake research centre; Volume 47; pp- 185 to 214; 1969.

11.                     Sawada. Yuki, Ono. Yugo; Thermal regime of sporadic permafrost in a block slope on
Mt. Nishi-Nupukaushinupuri, Hokkaido Island, Northern Japan; Laboratory of Geoecology; Division of Geoscience; Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University,N10, W5, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0810; 2006.

12.                     Mitsuta Yasushi, Fujii Takeshi; Analysis and Synthesis of Typhoon Wind Pattern over Japan; Kyoto University Research Information Repository; Bulletin of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (1987), 37(4); pp-169 to 185; 1987.


13.                     Yonemoto Marcia; maps of metaphors; geographical review; volume 89; pp- 169 to 187; 1999.


14.                     Borovoy Amy; Recovering from co dependence in Japan; American ethnologist; volume. 

Japan has delicate attributes. These are described after the map given in next page:

(PTO)







(A delicate map of Japan, with scale)

ATTRIBUTES OF JAPAN:
 Title of attribute
              Characteristic
Name
Japan
National flag name
Nishokki or Hinomaru
Currency
Yen
Capital city
Tokyo
Largest city
Tokyo (45 million)
No. Of islands
4 major, 3900 minor
Largest island
Honshu
Highest point
Mt. Fuji (3776 m)
Membership
ASEAN, LAIA, G20, APEC, CE, G8, G10, OAS, OECD, SAARC, WTO
No. Of prefectures
47
GDP
6.40 trillion US$
Area
3,77,737 sq km.
Population (2011)
16,40,000,00
Pop. Density
423 persons/sq km.
Terrain
Mountainous, rugged.
Vegetal coverage
81%
Literacy rate
99%
Government
Const. Monarchy; parliamentary govt.
Religion
Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity.
Language
Japanese
Ethnicity
99% Japanese
Natural resources
Few minerals, fishes
Economic activities
Automobiles, Agriculture, Fishing, Nuclear energy, Electronics, Shipbuilding, Software, Forestry, Metallurgical industries, Machineries etc.
Climate
Humid tropic, temperate, sub arctic.
Some renowned brands
Mitsubishi, Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, Isuzu, Canon, Mitashi, Add, Kawasaki, Funskool, Subaru, Kinsmart, Datsun, Asus, Nikon, Kyoto etc.
Avg. Life expectancy
79 for male & 84 for female
Avg. Cal. Consmp.
Over 6340 cal/ person
Main competitor
United States Of America
Exports
Automobiles, Pens, Electronics, Car parts,  gadgets, Laptops, Software, Canned fishes, Mobile phones, Ships, Machineries, Trains, Toys etc.
Special culture
Martial art, Judo, Kung Fu, Tykondo, Karate etc.
 (source: encyclopedia of world, pp- 160, paragon publisher, London, UK)
These were some unique features of the country of Japan. Here our main concern is to discuss about the natural hazards of Japan and human interventions.
PREFECTURES:
NO
         NAMES
        ISLAND
     CAPITALS
1
Hokkaido
Hokkaido
Sapporo
2
Aomori
Honshu
Aomori
3
Akita
Honshu
Akita
4
Iwati
Honshu
Morioka
5
Yamagata
Honshu
Yamagata
6
Miyagi
Honshu
Sendai
7
Fukushima
Honshu
Fukushima
8
Ibaraki
Honshu
Mito
9
Tochigi
Honshu
Utsunomiya
10
Gunma
Honshu
Maebashi
11
Saitama
Honshu
Urawa
12
Chiba
Honshu
Chiba
13
Tokyo
Honshu
Tokyo
14
Kanagawa
Honshu
Yokohama
15
Shizuoka
Honshu
Shizuoka
16
Yamashi
Honshu
Kofu
17
Nagano
Honshu
Nagano
18
Niigata
Honshu
Niigata
19
Toyama
Honshu
Toyama
20
Ishikawa
Honshu
Kanazawa
21
Fukui
Honshu
Fukui
22
Gifu
Honshu
Gifu
23
Aichi
Honshu
Nagoya
24
Mie
Honshu
Tsu
25
Shiga
Honshu
Otsu
26
Kyoto
Honshu
Kyoto
27
Nara
Honshu
Nara
28
Osaka
Honshu
Osaka
29
Wakayama
Honshu
Wakayama
30
Hyogo
Honshu
Kobe
31
Tottori
Honshu
Tottori
32
Okayama
Honshu
Okayama
33
Hiroshima
Honshu
Hiroshima
34
Shimane
Honshu
Matsue
35
Yamaguchi
Honshu
Yamaguchi
36
Kagawa
Shikoku
Takamatsu
37
Tokushima
Shikoku
Tokushima
38
Kochi
Shikoku
Kochi
39
Ehime
Shikoku
Matsuyama
40
Fukuoka
Kyushu
Fukuoka
41
Saga
Kyushu
Saga
42
Nagasaki
Kyushu
Nagasaki
43
Kumamoto
Kyushu
Kumamoto
44
Oita
Kyushu
Oita
45
Miyazaki
Kyushu
Miyazaki
46
Kagoshima
Kyushu
Kagoshima
47
Okinawa
Okinawa
Naha

WHY JAPAN IS SO MUCH HAZARDPRONE?
The answer of the above question is quite difficult. Because not only one or two facts are responsible for these hazards, there are several causes of these hazards. Japan is a tiny island country. The location of Japan reveals the mysteries that why Japan is so much unstable. The positioning of Japan is really dangerous. It lies over two tectonic plates’ margin. These two massive plates are Pacific plate & Eurasian plate. Thus as a result, tectonic instability is frequent there and thus tremors loom the country again and again through Typhoon, Tsunamis etc. These ocean giants spring up due to underwater volcanism, underwater earthquake, tectonic movements, plate collisions etc.


TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE 2011 & TSUNAMI:
Recently in 2011 a terrible underwater earthquake cum devastating Tsunami gave a tremor to the country. The Richter scale reading was 7.7 initially to the earthquake, but rapidly it leaped to 8.8, the 8.9 and finally it reached to 9.0 Richter. Japan witnessed first such destructive and expensive destruction in her life. This was due to the underwater instability. The earthquake is known as “Tohoku earthquake 2011”. There are some details of this giant provided below:
                 Event
                 Description
Date
11/03/2011 (Friday)
Time
14:46:23 JST
Duration
6 minutes
Magnitude
9.0
Depth
32 km
Epicentre
38.322°N; 142.369°E
Type of quake
Mega thrust earthquake
Country(s) influenced
Japan, Pacific rim
Total damage
Tsunami wave, flooding, landslides, fires, building and infrastructure damage, nuclear incidents including radiation releases

Max. Intensity
9.0
Peak acceleration
3.0 g
Tsunamis
Yes, 133 ft; Tohoku, Iwate, Miyako
Landslides
Yes
Foreshock(s)
7
Aftershock(s)
1,235
Casualties
15,844 deaths; 5,890 injured; 3,451 missing.
   (Source: Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, Site 7, Chuou-ku, Sapporo, 064-0807, Japan)

Most of all types of sources of the hazards most important is earthquake (both terrestrial & maritime), followed by human created hazards. Japan forms the boundary of “Pacific ring of fire”, which is big reason to concern. 2011 Tohoku earthquake caused massive destruction, nuclear explosion and thus pushed the country towards irreparable damage ever seen. Primarily the level 7 meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant complex were happened and the associated zones were evacuated hundreds of thousands of residents. Many electrical generators were taken down, and at least three nuclear reactors suffered explosions due to hydrogen gas. Residents within a 20 km (12 mi) radius of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km (6.2 mi) radius of the Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated.

(Tohoku earthquake 2011: a nightmare)

The 9.0-magnitude (MW) undersea mega thrust earthquake occurred on 11 March 2011 at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) in the north-western Pacific Ocean at a relatively shallow depth of 32 km (19.9 mi), with its epicentre approximately 72 km (45 mi) east of the Peninsula of Tohoku. It lasted approximately six minutes. The earthquake was initially reported as 7.7 MW by the USGS before it was quickly upgraded to 8.8 MW, then to 8.9 MW, and then finally to 9.0 MW. Sendai was the nearest major city to the earthquake, 130 km (81 mi) from the epicentre; the earthquake occurred 373 km (232 mi) from Tokyo.
The main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreshocks, with hundreds of aftershocks reported. The first major foreshock was a 7.2 MW event on 9 March, approximately 40 km (25 mi) from the epicentre of the 11 March earthquake, with another three on the same day in excess of 6.0 MW.  Following the main earthquake on 11 March, a 7.0 MW aftershock was reported at 15:06 JST. Over eight hundred aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 MW or greater have occurred since the initial quake.  Aftershocks follow Omori's Law, which states that the rate of aftershocks declines with the reciprocal of the time.






(Nuclear disaster, 2011, Fukushima, Japan)
One minute before the earthquake was felt in Tokyo, the Earthquake Early Warning system, which includes more than 1,000 seismometers in Japan, sent out warnings of impending strong shaking. It is believed that the early warning by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) saved many lives. The warning for the general public was delivered about 8 seconds after the first P wave was detected, or about 31 seconds after the earthquake occurred. This was thought to be because of smaller estimated earthquake. There were also cases where large differences between estimated intensities by the Earthquake Early Warning system and the actual intensities occurred in the aftershocks and triggered earthquakes.

(Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan, 2011 earthquake)


The terrible earthquake gave birth to a devastating Tsunami which left Japan nothing to do, nothing to think, nothing to eat, nothing to wear, nothing to drink, nothing to communicate, nothing to transport, even nothing to repent.
The tsunami warning issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency was the most serious on its warning scale; it rated as a "major tsunami", being at least 3 m (9.8 ft) high. The actual height predicted varied, the greatest being for Miyagi at 6 m (20 ft) high. The tsunami inundated a total area of approximately 561 sq km (217 sq mi) in Japan. The earthquake took place at 14:46 JST around 67 km (42 mi) from the nearest point on Japan's coastline, and initial estimates indicated the tsunami would have taken 10 to 30 minutes to reach the areas first affected, and then areas farther north and south based on the geography of the coastline. Just over an hour after the earthquake at 15:55 JST, a tsunami was observed flooding Sendai Airport, which is located near the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, with waves sweeping away cars and planes and flooding various buildings as they travelled inland. The image of the tsunami sweeping cars on the street in Sendai was caught by an in-car camera. A 4m high tsunami hit Iwate Prefecture. Wakabayashi Ward in Sendai was also particularly hard hit. At least 101 designated tsunami evacuation sites were hit by the wave. Among several factors causing the high death toll from the tsunami, one was the unexpectedly large size of the water surge. The tsunami walls at several of the affected cities were based on much smaller tsunami heights. On 13 March 2011, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) published details of tsunami observations recorded around the coastline of Japan following the earthquake. These observations included tsunami maximum readings of over 3 m (9.8 ft) at the following locations and times on 11 March 2011, following the earthquake at 14:46 JST.

(Energy map of Tsunami, NOAA, 2011 Tohoku)

Land subsidence and soil liquefaction were resultant in several parts of the country.
Geospatial Information Authority of Japan reported land subsidence on the height of triangulation station measured by GPS from previous value on 14 April 2011. Scientists say that the subsidence is permanent. As a result, the communities in question are now more susceptible to flooding during high tides.


(The water monster, 2011 Tsunami is rushing to gobble everything, Sendai, Japan)


It is reported that as many as 100,000 children were uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day. Two-hundred and thirty-six children were orphaned by the disaster. The quake and tsunami killed 378 elementary, middle-school, and high school students and left 158 others missing. The Japanese Foreign Ministry has confirmed the deaths of nineteen foreigners. Japanese funerals are normally elaborate Buddhist ceremonies which entail cremation. The thousands of bodies, however, exceeded the capacity of available crematoriums and morgues.
Many of them damaged, and there were shortage of kerosene & each cremation requires 50 litres—and dry ice for preservation. Governments and the military were forced to bury many bodies in hastily dug mass graves, although relatives of the deceased were promised that they would be cremated later. The tsunami is reported to have caused several deaths outside of Japan. Men were killed in Japura, Papua, Indonesia after being swept out to sea. A man who is said to have been attempting to photograph the oncoming tsunami at the mouth of the Klamath River, south of Crescent City, California, was swept out to sea. His body was found on 2nd  April along Ocean Beach in Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon, some 330 miles (530 km) to the north. As of 27 May 2011, three Japan Ground Self Defence Force members had died while conducting relief operations in Tohoku. As of 16 December 2011, the Japanese government had recognized 922 deaths as indirectly related to the earthquake, such as caused by harsh living conditions after the disaster. (Tsunami, 2011, Tohoku, Japan)
 In this image numbers of cars are being floating on the water as well as small air crafts. These are all due to the massive destruction of the earthquake and resultant tsunami. The scene is of Sendai, 2011; on 11/03/2011, Japan. (massive giant tsunami)



The degree and extent of damage caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunami were enormous, with most of the damage being caused by the tsunami. Video footage of the towns that were worst affected shows little more than piles of rubble, with almost no parts of any structures left standing. Estimates of the cost of the damage range well into the tens of billions of US dollars; before-and-after satellite photographs of devastated regions show immense damage to many regions.

(Mass destruction by the Tsunami)
(21,593 mi) coastline and stand up to 12 m (39 ft) high, the tsunami simply washed over the top of some seawalls, collapsing some in the process.
A fire which broke out in Tokyo after the earthquake
Japan's National Police Agency said on 3 April 2011; 45,700 buildings were destroyed and 144,300 were damaged by the quake and tsunami. The damaged buildings included 29,500 structures in Miyagi Prefecture, 12,500 in Iwate Prefecture and 2,400 in Fukushima Prefecture. Three hundred hospitals with 20 beds or more in Tohoku were damaged by the disaster, with 11 being completely destroyed. The earthquake and tsunami created an estimated 24–25 million tons of rubble and debris in Japan.

An estimated 230,000 automobiles and trucks were damaged or destroyed in the disaster. As of the end of May 2011, residents of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures had requested deregistration of 15,000 vehicles, meaning that the owners of those vehicles were writing them off as irreparable or unsalvageable.
  
All of Japan's ports were briefly closed after the earthquake, though the ones in Tokyo and southwards soon re-opened. Fifteen ports were located in the disaster zone. The north-eastern ports of Hachinohe, Sendai were destroyed, while the Port of Chiba (which serves the hydrocarbon industry) and Japan's ninth-largest container port at Kashima were also affected though less severely. A total of 319 fishing ports, about 10% of Japan's fishing ports, were damaged in the disaster.
The Port of Tokyo suffered slight damage; the effects of the quake included visible smoke rising from a building in the port with parts of the port areas being flooded, including soil liquefaction in Tokyo Disneyland's car park.

 Eight people were missing and four bodies were discovered by the morning due to dam failure.  Reportedly, some locals had attempted to repair leaks in the dam before it completely failed. On 12 March, 252 dams were inspected and it was discovered that six embankment dams had shallow cracks on their crests. The reservoir at one concrete gravity dam suffered a small non-serious slope failure. All damaged dams are functioning with no problems. Four dams within the quake area were unreachable. When the roads clear, experts will be dispatched to conduct further investigations.
In the immediate aftermath of the calamity, at least 1.5 million households were reported to have lost access to water supplies. By 21 March 2011, this number fell to 1.04 million.

According to Tohoku Electric Power (TEP), around 4.4 million households in north eastern Japan were left without electricity. Several nuclear and conventional power plants went offline after the earthquake, reducing TEPCO's total capacity by 21 GW. Rolling black outs began on 14 March due to power shortages caused by the earthquake. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which normally provides approximately 40 GW of electricity, announced that it can currently provide only about 30 GW.
This is because 40% of the electricity used in the greater Tokyo area is now supplied by reactors in the Niigata and Fukushima prefectures. The reactors at the Fukushima plants were automatically taken offline when the first earthquake occurred and have sustained major damage related to the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Rolling blackouts of three hours are expected to last until the end of April and will affect Tokyo, Kanagawa, Eastern Shizuoka, Yamanashi, Chiba, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tochigi, and Gunma prefectures. Voluntary reduced electricity use by consumers in the Kanto area helped reduce the predicted frequency and duration of the blackouts. By 21 March 2011, the number of households in the north without electricity fell to 242,171. Tohoku Electric Power cannot currently provide the Kanto region with additional power, because TEP's power plants were also damaged in the earthquake. Kansai Electric Power Company cannot share electricity, because its system operates at 60 hertz, whereas TEPCO and TEP operate their systems at 50 hertz; this is due to early industrial and infrastructure development in the 1880s that left Japan without a unified national power grid. Two substations, one in Shizuoka Prefecture and one in Nagano Prefecture, can convert between frequencies and transfer electricity from Kansai to Kanto and Tohoku, but their capacity to do so is limited to 1 GW. In effort to help alleviate the shortage, three steel manufacturers in the Kanto region are contributing electricity produced by their in-house conventional power stations to TEPCO for distribution to the general public.
(Tohoku earthquake, spreading through passage of time, Japan, 2011)
Sumitomo Metal Industries can produce up to 500 MW, JFE Steel 400 MW, and Nippon Steel 500 MW of electric power auto and auto parts makers in Kanto and Tohoku agreed in May 2011 to operate their factories on Saturdays and Sundays and close on Thursdays and Fridays to assist in alleviating the electricity shortage during the summer of 2011.                                     

TYPHOON (2004):
The year of 2004 was a year of great experience and imprints of natural disasters in Japan. In this year Japan experienced several surges of typhoons, tsunamis which gave the entire country terrible shakes and tremors. Habitation of Japan was disturbed unbelievably.  Ten typhoons struck Japan in 2004, which was an all time high. The characteristics of typhoon activity are the unusually high number of typhoons approaching Japan in the early summer (June) and fall (September and October) and the frequent landfalls in the middle summer (July and August). Seasonal mean large-scale circulation in 2004 was characterized by a split of the North Pacific subtropical high, east of Taiwan and persistent anti cyclonic anomalies to the southeast of Japan, enabling typhoons to penetrate and move to Japan.
In the western North Pacific (WNP), about 3/4th of the annual number of tropical cyclones occur during the typhoon season (June to October). During this season, the WNP warm pool is expanded to the north and the axis of the monsoon trough also migrates further north than in other periods, giving rise to favourable conditions for typhoon development over the vast area of the tropical WNP basin. The North Pacific subtropical high (NPSH), bounded to the north of the monsoon trough also experiences seasonal migration showing its annual northernmost position in August.
(Typhoon 2004; Japan)
 (Typhoon 2004; Japan)
There are some tables based on the typhoon landfall data & landfall formation are given in next page,      (PTO)

TABLE 1: NUMBER OF LANDFALLS


No. Of landfalls
No. Of Years
Total
0
3
0
1
7
7
2
13
26
3
14
42
4
10
40
5
5
25
6
1
6
Sum

146
Mean

2.8
SD

1.4
(Source: GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, Vol. 32, L14713, doi: 10.1029/2005GL022494, 2005)

TABLE 2: Monthly number of typhoon landfalls on Japan:
                                                       Landfall/Approach/Formation
                                                 2004                        1951-2003
Early summer, Jun /Middle summer
2/3/5
 0.2 ± 0.4/0.9 ± 0.9/1.7 ± 0.9

Jul,
Aug, Mid-summer, total
Fall
1/2/2, 3/6/8, 4/8/10
0.5 ± 0.5/2.2 ± 1.4/3.9 ± 1.8, 1.0 ± 0.7/3.5 ± 1.8/5.6 ± 1.9, 1.5 ± 1.1/5.6 ±2.3/9.6 ± 2.8

Sep,
Oct, Fall total,
 total
2/3/3, 2/3/3, 4/6/6; 10/17/21
0.9 ± 0.8/2.7 ± 1.4/5.0 ± 1.6, 0.2 ± 0.3/1.5 ± 0.8/3.9 ± 1.4, 1.1 ± 1.1/4.2 ± 1.6/8.8 ± 2.0; 2
.8 ± 1.4/10.7 ± 3.1/20.22± 4.3
 (Source: GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L14713, doi: 10.1029/2005GL022494, 2005)

CHARACTERISTICS OF 2004 TYPHOON:

21 typhoons formed during the typhoon season in 2004. Ten typhoons among them made landfall on Japan. These landfalls typhoons, except two, all underwent a recurving path in the region 20-30° N, 125-135° E and approached Japan with a north eastward movement. Interestingly, none of them landed on Korea. Also, all typhoons except Ma-on (0422) landed on the western territory of Japan. The genesis locations (starting points) of the 10 typhoons are scattered, consisting of nine in the North Pacific Ocean, and one in the South China Sea. According to the ENSO monitoring by the Climate Prediction Centre/NCEP, positive sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) persisted in the Nino4 region during the typhoon season of 2004, which is representative of the early stage of a warm (El Nino) episode. As a result, equatorial westerlies extended further east so that the relative velocity in the south eastern region of WNP was stronger. This provided a higher potential for typhoon formation in the WNP.
Table 2 shows the monthly distribution of typhoon landfalls and approaches to Japan, relative to total formation during the typhoon season. According to the variation of the large-scale mean flows, typhoon seasons are divided into three periods, i.e. early summer (June), middle summer (July and August), and fall (September and October). In the early summer, five typhoons formed in the WNP, three of them approached Japan, and two made landfall on Japan. During the middle summer, while total formation was near normal, the number approaching Japan was more frequent than the climatology, resulting in an unusually high number of landfalls. During the fall, again Japan experienced an unusually high number of typhoon landfalls (4) even though the typhoon formation was relatively suppressed in the WNP.
In fact, most typhoons formed during the fall of 2004 headed for Japan.

(satellite image of Japan)


TSUNAMI:
A large-scale submarine earthquake is usually responsible for disruption of the sea surface, which swells and results in high waves that strike coastal areas. This phenomenon is referred to as a tsunami (surge wave). In particular, rhea coastlines (numerous estuaries along an embayed coast), which run deep into the land, are in great danger of being hit by tsunami waves because the waves become concentrated and higher as they are channelled into the shallower and narrower waters of the rhea. Japan has numerous rhea coastlines vulnerable to tsunami events. A typical example of an area affected by tsunamis is the Sanriku coast in Iwate prefecture.
In 1896, despite only slight damage from an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1, 27,000 people were killed by the tsunami. The tsunami in 1933 achieved a maximum height of 28.7 meters at Ryori, Iwate; caused by an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3. The tsunami claimed a total of 3,800 lives.
After this an emergency warning system was established, and measures were taken to construct embankments and floodgates against future tsunamis to assure the security of the population.
The term tsunami is the Japanese word for the seismically generated ocean surges that affects coastal areas. Japan is affected by nearly one-third of the tsunamis that range across the Pacific in a given year, far more than most other countries.

Their regularity and intensity have resulted in major projects as well as widespread educational programs to alert the residents of low-lying coastal areas to the potential for tsunamis and to respond quickly when a tsunami warning is issued. Increased training and educational opportunities are available within tsunami risk regions from international organizations such as the International Tsunami Information Centre.


(Hypocenters of earthquakes that triggered tsunamis and the propagation
times across the Pacific. (a) An earthquake off the coast of Japan on March 3, 1933.
(b) An earthquake off the coast of Chile on May 23, 1960. Source: After Japan
Meteorological Agency (1933, 1960).)

KYOTO UNIVERSITY’S WORK OVER THE PATTERN OF TYPHOONS:
The present status of the studies on analysis and synthesis of surface wind pattern of severe typhoons over the main islands of Japan made by the group of the present authors by the aid of Grant-in-Aid of Research on Natural Disasters is reviewed in the present paper. Forty nine severe typhoons in the period from 1951 to 1984 were analyzed and a statistical character of severe typhoons hitting the Japanese archipelago was obtained. Numerical simulation of a typhoon with the pressure pattern statistically consistent with the result was attempted to estimate severe wind conditions of a point. In most parts of Japan the strongest wind to be considered in disaster prevention works may be that caused by a typhoon. Estimation of the highest expected typhoon wind speed at a given location is one of the most important tasks in applied meteorology. For this purpose, there may be a few approaches. One is the direct processing of the past wind records at the point following the extreme theory. However, the number of existing wind observation sites with along history of recorded data is too small to estimate wind distribution over the complex topography of Japan. The longest observation period is over 100 years or so. The second method is estimation of wind severity by the multi correlation of various parameters such as geographic position, inclination of the ground, height, distance from the sea or mountain, and so on. The third approach is wind estimation from pressure patterns. The relation between pressure pattern and wind is well established since the beginning of modern meteorology with weather maps long consisting of isobars in the middle latitudes, because an isobar is stable and easy to trace. The parameters ascribing the pressure pattern of a typhoon are stable and suited to delineate the character of the typhoon. Based on certain empirical relation, the determination of the relation between FFW and surface wind distribution will be attempted.
The third approach is considered to be the most practical by the present authors. The analysis of typhoon winds can be reduced into analysis of the typhoon pressure pattern and the relation between the pressure pattern and the surface wind distribution.

TYPHOON AREA IN JAPAN:
Hokkaido, Tohoku and some parts on the Japan Sea coast in which storms of extra-tropical cyclones in cold seasons are more severe than typhoons. The Pacific and the East China Sea coasts in middle and western Japan is the highest wind zone which may correspond to the zone of typhoon landing. The other high wind zone is in Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan where the highest wind speeds are as high as 30 to 40 m/s, comparable to typhoon winds in south-western Japan.

ANALYSIS OF A TYPHOON PRESSURE PATTERN:
For the purpose of analysis of pressure patterns of severe typhoons that have landed on the Japanese main islands, the hourly data of the typhoon observations at weather stations of Japan Meteorological Agency ( JMA) within a range of 200 km from the typhoon tracks were collected and stored as a    data-base. The data of the total number of 49 severe typhoons, of which central pressures are lower than 980mb at the time of landing, are collected in the period from 1951 to 1984.
The hourly sea-level pressure data at stations were analyzed by the objective method developed by the present authors. In the course of analysis, the surface pressure pattern of a typhoon is assumed to be represented by concentric circular isobars with an exponential profile proposed by Schloemer, after preliminary studies on pressure profiles, as follows
P = Pc+ 41)e—(11 x), where pc is the central pressure, zip the central pressure depth (=p.—pc), p. The peripheral pressure, and x=r1r,„, r the distance from the centre. Assuming this pressure profile, the best fit typhoon centre and pressure pattern were chosen from the hourly data by the least
sq error method independent of the previous time.
The statistical analysis was made, dividing the Japanese main islands into three parts. The central pressure depth, speed and direction of forward motion are described by log-normal distribution. The direciton of motion is well fitted to this distribution when the angle is measured counter-clockwise from the east. The radius of the maximum cyclostrophic wind speed, the other important typhoon parameter, is the function of the central pressure depth without respect to the areal division.

NUMERIC SIMULATION OF TYPHOON OVER JAPAN:

Once statistical characteristics have been obtained, one can estimate probable storm wind speed and direction based on the numerical simulation of typhoon pressure pattern statistically consistent with the experienced typhoon characteristics. The occurrence and translation path of typhoons that hit the main islands of Japan in 10,000 years are simulated together with central pressure and radius of maximum cyclotropic wind speed by the use of Monte Carlo technique, following the statistical characteristic of the typhoon. In employing the Monte-Carlo method, the occurrence of the phenomenon was limited within 1 to 99% of the occurrence probability, which means the existence of upper and lower limits of the parameter.



PROBLEMS IN TRANSLATING FFW INTO SURFACE WINDS:

 The largest problem in translating FFW into surface wind (defined as 10 min mean wind speed and direction at 10 m high from the surface) is the effects of topography or the surface roughness conditions, because wind is largely dependent on them.

Table 3:
The average values and the standard deviation ( S.D.) of the deflection angle of the surface wind and those of the ratio of the speed of surface wind and the friction free wind (FFW).
                                                                
                                                      

STATIONS NAME
W.D
No. Of case
Deflection of wind dir. (in°)
(mean)    (SD)
Ratio of wind speed   (in°)
(mean)    (SD)
FUKUOKA
N
E
S
W
TOT
17
45
-
6
68
20
60
-
1
45
23
18
-
47
33
.75
.58
-
.45
.61
.23
.18
-
.15
.21
KUMAMOTO
N
E
S
W
TOT
30
40
4
19
93
35
65
80
32
49
18
16
28
30
26
.43
.31
.54
.39
.38
.13
.10
.36
.17
.16
MIYAZAKI
N
E
S
W
TOT
-
-
42
52
94
-
-
39
34
36
-
-
11
16
14
-
-
.56
.54
.55
-
-
.17
.16
.17
KAGOSHIMA
N
E
S
W
TOT
5
2
7
62
76
20
30
30
17
19
7
3
32
15
18
.58
.97
.40
.48
.49

.09
.12
.09
.13
.15
HIROSHIMA
N
E
S
W
TOT
9
23
18
4
54
12
75
67
36
61
20
22
23
33
32
.56
.54
.42
.48
.50
.31
.15
.15
.14
.19
KOCHI
N
E
S
W
TOT
11
4
29
18
62
57
44
49
31
45
21
3
19
15
20
.27
.54
.50
.39
.43
.11
.15
.17
.12
.17
OSAKA
N
E
S
W
TOT
4
8
30
10
52
44
68
81
43
69
11
12
21
11
24
.44
.66
.34
.51
.43
.07
.14
.16
.09
.18
SHIONOMIAKI
N
E
S
W
TOT
-
-
19
24
43
-
-
16
12
13
-
-
13
16
15
-
-
.76
.70
.73
-
-
.18
.10
.15
NAGOYA
N
E
S
W
TOT
4
2
21
7
34
19
96
33
34
35
23
29
14
50
32
.56
.39
.51
.52
.51
.12
.14
.10
.13
.13
SHIZUOKA
N
E
S
W
TOT
6
-
14
6
26

41
-
29
47
36
37
-
17
18
25
.31
-
.40
.40
.38
.16
-
.09
.10
.11
TOKYO
N
E
S
W
TOT
-
2
15
2
19
-
19
40
17
36
-
26
23
35
23
-
.52
.46
.31
.45
-
.05
.10
.19
.12
TOTAL

621
41                 17
.50             .19
(Bull, Disas; Prev. Res. Inst., Kyoto Univ., Vol. 37, Part 4, No. 329, December, 1987)


 (volcano unzen, Japan)

                        (Devastation of 2004 typhoon, Japan)
In the year of 2004, the typhoon of Japan was originated due to the temperate cyclone. Gigantic temperate cyclone formed over the entire sky of Japan and influenced the ocean water to flood the country. 
(Temperate cyclone formed over Japan,2004)

1993 HOKKAIDO TAISEI EARTHQUAKE & TSUNAMI:
At 10:17 p.m. on 12 July 1993, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred with epicentre approximately 200 km northwest of Okushiri Island (42°46.8′N, 139°11.1′E). This Hokkaido–Nansei-oki earthquake caused a tsunami that flooded not only Okushiri Island but also parts of the western side of Oshima Peninsula in south western Hokkaido including Taisei town. Afterwards it was found that 230 people had been killed or were unaccounted for. Since the tsunami arrived at night, only a few residents could provide detailed descriptions of the tsunami at Taisei. According to these residents, two or three tsunami flood waves struck the Taisei area causing widespread destruction. The first tsunami wave arrived at ca. 10:28 p.m., and the second wave arrived 3 min after the first, at ca. 10:31 p.m. It is not clear whether there was a third wave. If so, this wave was much smaller than the first two.

(Photographs showing  (a) the mouth of the Usubetsu River, (b) the Miyano coast, and the seabed (c) at 0.5 m (d) and at 1 m depth off the river mouth. These photographs were taken 5 years after the 1993 tsunami. Ellipses indicate wave ripples)

According to a post-tsunami survey, the tsunami height near Taisei was 5.3–8.8 m. The alluvial plain at Taisei is 3 to 7 m above mean sea level, and the inundation area of the 1993 tsunami extended 300 m from the shoreline across highway R-229 and 400–450 m from the shoreline along the Usubetsu and Ogawa rivers, because there were no breakwater systems at the river mouths.
The tsunami ran up onto the land from the west to west–southwest at Taisei, as estimated from the collapse directions of herbaceous plants and utility poles, and from the displacement of tetrapods, observed on aerial photographs taken after the tsunami . The backwash waves converged along the Ogawa and Usubetsu rivers. In the Usubetsu-bashi area, the first wave had a maximum height of 7.0 m, and the second wave was even higher, at 8.6 m. Observations based on aerial photographs indicated that the tsunami invasion extended 450 to 460 m inland from the shoreline at the
Usubetsu River, as estimated by plant debris on the flood plain. The backwash waves were channelled by the low watercourse and were also controlled by the microtopography previously reported the results of a trench survey of the 1993 tsunami deposit on the Hirahama coast.
(tsunami 2004)
                                                                                                          


STATISTICS OF DISASTERS:
The following Table 4 depicts the overview of the natural disasters from 1980-2010. The table will tell that, from only 30 years back Japan has become victimized with several surges of dangerous natural calamities. These natural calamities have left their imprints on the country as well as on the inhabitants of Japan.

Table 4:
       Facts
           Details
Number of events
157
Number of people killed
8,568
Average killed/ year
276
Number of people affected
3,361,979
Average affected/ year
108,451
Economic damage
208,230,800 US$*1000
Average economic damage
6,717,123 US$*1000
(Source:  statistical yearbook, Japan, 2011, pp-1033)

The following table depicts the statistics of average disaster per year:
Table 5:
         Types of hazards
   Rate of occurrence
Draught
-----
Earthquake
1.00
Extreme temperature
0.03
Epidemics
0.10
Flood
0.71
Insect infection
-----
Mass movement dry
-----
Mass movement wet
0.45
Volcano
0.26
Storm
2.48
Wildfire
0.03
                                  (Source: statistical yearbook, Japan, 2011, pp-1099)


      Here it is clear that the most affecting natural calamity for human death is storm followed by earthquake in Japan.
The following table will show the number of disaster affected people in different years with different types of natural hazards.

Table 6:
Type of disaster
Year
No. Of people affected
Earthquake
1995
541,636
Flood
2000
360,110
Storm
2005
270,140
Storm
2004
180,050
Storm
2000
180,041
Flood
1986
162,000
Storm
1982
140,000
Storm
2002
100,018
Storm
1991
91,128
Storm
1990
87,778
(Source: statistical yearbook, 2011, Japan)

In the country like Japan these death tolls in several surges are not meagre from 80s to till date.

In the following table shown is the number of killed persons due to natural hazards in different years. See Table 7 (PTO)

Table 7:
Types of calamity
      Year
No. Of death
Earthquake
1995
5,297
Flood
1982
345
Earthquake
1993
239
Storm
1983
131
Mass movement(w)
1983
117
Earthquake
1983
102
Storm
1982
100
Storm
2005
100
Storm
2004
89
Storm
2004
88
(Source: statistical yearbook, 2011, Japan)

There is another table here presenting the magnitude of economic disasters due to the natural hazards in different years in terms of dollars with *1000 magnitude.

Table 8:
Disaster
Date
Cost ($*1000)
Earthquake
1995
100,000,000
Earthquake
2004
28,000,000
Earthquake
2007
12,500,000
Storm
1991
10,000,000
Storm
2004
9,000,000
Flood
2000
7,440,000
Storm
1999
5,000,000
Storm
1990
4,000,000
Storm
1998
3,000,000
Storm
2006
2,500,000
(Source:  statistical yearbook, 2011, Japan)

These irreparable economic damages have harmed Japan much and more. But Japan, world’s most hi tech country coped up soon and came back within short.

VOLCANISM:
Japan is covered in mountainous arcs. Volcanoes are common in Japan. The volcanoes throughout the Kuril Islands, north eastern Honshu and down to the Bonin Islands form one big island arc which forms the north eastern Japan. The arcs of south eastern Honshu and the Ryukyu Islands form the oldest part of south western Japan.
Japan has about one-tenth of the world’s active volcanoes and hundreds of inactive volcanoes. Mount Fuji is the highest mountain and most famous mountain in Japan. This mountain is still active as are Asama, Aso, Banai, Miharaand and Sakurajima. There are actually more than 40 active volcanoes out of a told of 180.
(volcanic explosion in Japan)
Once a year, usually in January, Japanese have volcano evacuation drills.

They will actually practice using helicopters to fly people out of the villages.
 Scientists measure every change in the volcanoes' activity and record and study this information. They hope to be able to give enough advance notice so people can escape. The Sakurajima Volcano is one volcano that I will be talking about. This volcano has erupted 42 times in January, 1996, thirty-one times in February and 69 times in March. 69 time is the fifth largest record out of all the months in 1996. All together the volcano erupted 200 times throughout that whole year! In the year 1995, it approximately erupted 3-4 million tons of material according to the Sakurajima Volcanological Observatory of Kyoto University. In January 1996 an eruption column rose three kilometers. It covered Kagoshima city causing heavy traffic. They are expecting a big eruption in the near future. Sakurajima Volcano Eruption of Sakurajima Volcano with lightning May 18, 1991 The Komaga-take was another bad volcano.
   (Mount Fuji)
 On the night of March 5, 1996, Usu Volcano Observatory recorded that there was a volcanic eruption. Volcanoes abound in Japan. There are 250 major volcanoes, 94 of which (about 10% of all those in the world) are active. Volcanism causes extensive damage to its surroundings, sometimes depriving humans of their land, homes, and livelihood. A deep accumulation of volcanic matters seriously affects social life, agriculture, and forestry.
Pyroclastic flows and phreatomagmatic explosions are most destructive and cause damages over a wide area.
Volcanic eruptions also exert an indirect influence on human life. Volcanic ash floating in the stratosphere prevents solar radiation from reaching the earth’s surface (the parasol effect), thus causing a drop in the air temperature of the troposphere and inclement weather. In the vicinity of the active Sakurajima volcano, its volcanic ash sometimes leads to breathing problems for people in Kagoshima, southern Kyushu. Volcanoes, however, do not necessarily harm humanity in the long run. Volcanoes also create beautifully scenic regions and many hot springs around which popular resorts are built. Geothermal energy in volcanic areas is increasingly being utilized as a clean source of energy.
In the short term, however, volcanoes can disrupt people’s lives. Two recent examples of volcanic eruptions that required evacuation are those in 1987 and 2000.
 (Gasping Mt. Fuji)
There were also some small quakes that happened. The morning of March 6, the Japan Meteorological Agency reported a five hundred foot high white plume rising above the centre of the volcano.
(Shinmoedec volcano, Japan)
RISK PROFILE OF JAPAN:
The risk is the combination of the probability of an event and its negative consequences.

This risk profile is an analysis of the mortality and economic loss risk for three weather-related hazards: tropical cyclones, floods and landslides. In addition new insights have been gained into other hazards such as earthquakes, tsunami and drought.

 Human Exposure:
Modelled number of people present in hazard zones that are thereby subject to potential losses.
Table 9:
Hazard type
Population
exposed
Percentage of population
Country ranking
22,548,120
1st out of 89
3,888,340

17th out of 184
115,355

23rd out of 162
37,030

8th out of 162

13,404,870
1st out of 153
4,497,645

2nd out of 76
(Source: statistical yearbook, Japan, 2011)
Legend:
Tropical Cyclones (Saffir-Simpson categories)


Earthquake (modified Mercalli scale classes)
Economic Exposure
Modelled amount of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) present in hazard zones that are thereby subject to potential losses.

Hazard type
GDP exposed (billions-US$)
Percentage of GDP
Country ranking
889.64

1st out of 89
4.56

6th out of 162
13.32

2nd out of 162

3,407.71

1st out of 153
142.2



(Source: Survey Authority of Japan; statistical yearbook, 2011, Japan)

Table 10: (main natural disaster of Japan)
Name
Year
Affected pop.
Flood
1965
3,000,000
Earthquake
1978
2,500,000
Epidemic
1978
2,000,000
Flood
1953
1,866,000
Earthquake
1995
1,836,000
Windstorm
1959
1,500,000
Windstorm
1945
1,340,000
Flood
1961
1,300,000
Windstorm
1953
1,000,000
Windstorm
1950
6,42,000
Earthquake
1923
1,43,000
Earthquake
1995
5,500
Earthquake
1948
5,100
Windstorm
1959
5,100
Windstorm
1917
4,000
Windstorm
1945
3,700
Earthquake
1933
3,000
Windstorm
1934
3,000
Surge
1933
3,000
Windstorm
1923
3,000
(Source: EM-DAT, 2004)
SEEPAGE EROSION:
This is also a type of natural hazard in Japan, though its impact is not so devious like the aforesaid hazards. But it has slow but steady negative impact which can’t be neglected. There are serious problems of seepage erosion in Japan parallel to other natural hazards.
 The study area is situated in Obara, near Nagoya, Japan, where hills 300-500m are underlain by Cretaceous medium-grained diorite (Nakai, 1974). This area is characterized by a low drainage density. Valley heads are semi-circular with convex slope profiles and flat valley bottoms. The size of valley bottoms varies from place to place, but slope profiles are highly equivalent, especially for lower slope angles (45-55°).
The valley floor has an area of 406 sq mt and is always wet. Subsurface outflows occur at the boundary between a steep slope and a flat valley bottom and form pipe flows. The mean diameter of the pipe outlets is approximately 3 cm. Mean annual rainfall was 1591 mm during the period of 8 years from 1979 to 1987, and the yearly average precipitation during the rainy season (June to July) of this period was 443 mm.

FOSSA MAGNA:

Fossa Magna is a deep central trench stretching through the central Japan from Japan sea in the west to Pacific ocean in the east. This Fossa Magna is an important region of instability in Japan. But the trench is not detectable because with the passage of time the trench has been filled up. Fossa magna disturbs the general trends of mountains and rivers of central Japan.
 The northern Fossa Magna (NMF) is a Miocene rift basin formed in the final stages of the opening of the Sea
of Japan. The northern part of Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line (ISTL) bounds the western part of the NMF and forms an active fault system that displays one of the largest slip rates in the Japanese islands. Reflection and refraction/wide-angle reflection profiling and earthquake observations by a dense array were undertaken across the northern part of ISTL in order to delineate structures in the crust, and deep geometry of the active fault systems. The balanced geologic cross-section based on the reflection profiles suggests that
the shortening deformation since the late Neogene was produced by the basin inversion of the Miocene low-angle normal fault.

To construct a realistic model to explain crustal deformation processes in the short term (<100 years) to long term is important for a better understanding of the occurrence of crustal devastative earthquakes and seismic hazards.
The northern part of the ISTL is defined as the western boundary fault of the Neogene sedimentary basin, named
Fossa Magna.  Judging from the basin fill, the formation of the northern part of the ISTL and northern Fossa Magna is closely related to the formation of the Sea of Japan and northern Honshu rift system. In the southern Fossa Magna region, the fore-arc sediments of Honshu arc and the sediments deposited on the Izu-Bonin arc are strongly deformed by the collision of the two arcs. The northern Fossa Magna was formed as a rift basin located in the southern end of the northern Honshu rift system. In the northern part of the basin, more than 6 km of marine sediments have accumulated The Neogene basin fill is strongly folded with NE trending axial trace.



(Fossa Magna)

The Central Uplift Zone trends parallel to the northern Fossa Magna basin and consists of gently dipping lower Miocene submarine mudstone and volcanic rocks.

MAN MADE DISASTERS IN JAPAN: (H.I)
Disasters caused by human beings are very much common in Japan rather than the natural hazards. Every year, it is artificial disaster which harms the country rather than natural disasters. Most of these are cases of fire, high voltage short circuits, nuclear radiation, undesired nuclear surges, explosions in atomic centres, nuclear testing.... so on so forth. These accidents are caused due to irresponsible attitude of human beings and their reckless testing and experiments with devious radioactive materials. These take heavy toll of lives and keep on it, because these artificial disasters have long run consequences unlike the natural disasters. Nuclear disasters are noteworthy and most detrimental among all. Some unforgettable nuclear accidents are as follows:
Nuclear accidents in Japan include the following major cases:
The fast breeder Monju Nuclear Power Plant sodium leak in December 1995 (the reactor is still shut-down), the Tokai reprocessing waste explosion in March 1997, the criticality accident at the Tokai fuel fabrication facility in September 1999 and a widespread falsification scandal starting in August 2002 that lead to shut down all of Tokyo Electric Power Company's 17 nuclear reactors. The following diagram will show the different alerts of incidents and accidents with help of different colour tones.
First 3 bars (from bottom) are not categorized as accidents. But if it is yellow alert then it is accident with local consequences, if orange alert then it is accident with wider consequence, if red then alert it means serious accident and if violet alert then it denotes major accidents with the risk of level 7; which means more risk than a terrorist attack over the nation.
 On 9 August 2004, five workers were killed after a steam leak at the Mihama Nuclear Power Plant-3 station. The subsequent investigation revealed a serious lack in systematic inspection in Japanese nuclear plants, which led to a massive inspection program.
On 16 July 2007, a severe earthquake (measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale) hit the region where Tokyo Electric's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant is located. The plant with seven units is the largest single nuclear power station in the world. All of the reactors were shut down and are expected to remain closed for damage verification and repairs for at least one year.
  (nuclear testing)

The dangerous explosion in the nuclear centres in Japan caused massive killer radiation. But the most interesting thing is that, this effect of radiation affected the North America, its entire western part, but didn’t touch the Asia, Europe, Africa & Australia. This is a very interesting phenomenon. This was happened due to the movement of Jet Streams over Pacific Ocean from Asia towards North America at higher altitude at very high speed (120km/h).
The motion of Jet Stream is more favourable towards US from Japan rather than US to Japan direction. In a picture given later will show the effect of radiation from Japan towards North America.   
Following an earthquake, tsunami, and failure of cooling systems at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Station in Japan on March 11, 2011, a nuclear emergency was declared. This was the first time a nuclear emergency had been declared in Japan, and 140,000 residents within 20km of the plant were moved out. Explosions and a fire resulted in dangerous levels of radiation, resulting in a stock market collapse and panic-buying in supermarkets.
   (Fukushima nuclear accident, 2011)
(Nuclear explosion in  Miyagi, 2006, Japan)

( Sendai nuclear disaster, 2011, Japan)
(Fukushima nuclear reactor)
(Nuclear meltdown, Fukushima, Japan)
In November 1974, 33 crew members died in a huge explosion and fire on a tanker carrying liquid petroleum gas and naphtha when the tanker collided with a cargo ship in Tokyo Bay. The tanker was towed outside the bay and struck with torpedoes fired from a submarine and destroyer and still continued to burn for more 20 days.
(Effects of radiation from Japan, 2011)


(Nuclear explosion)






  In October 2007, a 9 year old boy went into a coma after leaning over the handrail of an escalator and getting his neck caught between a handrail and safety barriers in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. In September 2007, three people were killed and four were injured when an 800 tonne shipbuilding crane collapsed at a shipyard in Kobe. A 50 metre arm on the crane fell off while it was being repaired. Nine workers were working on the crane at the time of the accident. The three men that died fell from distances of between 12 and 36 meters. In December 2007, four people were killed at an explosion at the Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. plant in Kamisu, Ibaraki. The explosion occurred at cracking furnace—used to refine naphtha and propylene— at ethylene plant. Each summer scores of people die in water-related accidents. Many drown in rivers or off beaches. Others die in boating accidents. It is not unusual for a dozen people to die nationwide on a single day during a hot summer weekend.
A fire in November 1973 at Taiyo Department Store in Kumamoto killed 104 and injured 124. In November 1980, a fire at the Kawaji Prince Hotel in Kawaji spa resort in Tochigi Prefecture killed 45 people and injured 22. A fire in February 1982 at the Hotel New Japan in Tokyo killed 33 and injured 25. A fire in February 1986 at the Atagawa spa resort in Shizuoka prefecture killed 24. In April 2003, nine people died in an explosion at a fireworks factory in Kagoshima. Some 50 houses within a 500-meter radius of the factory were damaged by shock waves. A kind of firework known as Niagra Fall was being made at the time of the disaster. The kind of gunpowder used is very explosive. Witnesses said there was an initial explosion followed by secondary explosions caused when gunpowder in storage areas ignited. In September 2003, a fire in naphtha storage tank triggered by an earthquake burned for 44 hours before it was extinguished in tomakoma, Hokkaido. The fire was spectacular, producing fireballs, flames and black smoke. Nearly all the fuel in the huge tank was burned up before the fire went out. Fire fighters didn’t have the proper equipment to put it out.
(Nuclear plant explosion, 2011, Japan)
In January 2006, three teenagers died in a fire at a karaoke box in Takarazuka near Osaka. The fire was caused by a cooking oil fire in the karaoke’s kitchen caused by an unattended oil-filled wok left burning on a stove. The dead teenagers were trapped on the second floor where the windows had been boarded up and could not be used to escape. The karaoke was not registered with the government and did not have adequate fire-prevention measures. The owner of the karaoke box in Takarazuka was found guiltily of professional negligence resulting in death and failing to maintain fire safety standards and was sentenced to prison. The woman who started the fire in the kitchen was also arrested for professional negligence. A probe done after the fire found that 70 percent of Japan’s karaoke boxes violated fire laws. Among the violations were failure to use non flammable curtains and carpets and failing to install fire escape ladders or slides. In December 2009, four workers were killed when a cylindrical tank containing toxic gas exploded at a chemical plant in Yodogawa Ward, Osaka. The four victims, who were working near the top of the tank, were blown through the roof. The blast occurred after one worker cut a hole in the tank to remove sludge that had collected inside it Access to plant was restricted for hours because of concerns over the chemicals. In November 2009, four people were killed and 12 were injured in a fire at an Izakaya restaurant in Sugunami ward in Tokyo. A survivor said the fire broke out as a cook was preparing skewered food in front of him and the set fire to a piece of decorative cloth hanging from the ceiling. A few days earlier, a fire at a mah-jongg parlor in Himatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture killed four people. In March 2010, seven elderly people with dementia died in a nursing home fire in Sapporo, the nursing was not outfit with sprinklers or adequate alarms and most of those that died were unable to get out. The fire started from a stove in the first floor of the facility. The home had been reprimanded for not having an adequate fire escape plan. The home had not broken any laws for not having sprinklers or alarms. Because of the high cost for these items it had been given a grace period until 2012 to obtain these items.
In September 2001, forty-four people died in a fire that broke out in a building in the Shinjuku entertainment district in Tokyo after an explosion near a gas meter at a mah-jongg parlor on the third floor. Most of the dead were in the crowded mah-jongg parlor and the hostess bar above it. The explosion occurred at around 1:00am and quickly engulfed the building in flames. There were few escapes routes and people leapt from the windows. Most of the dead died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Many of the businesses in the building had not met fire safety regulations for fire escapes, did not have required fire safety equipment, and had not submitted fire prevention reports.
In October 2008, a fire in a video theatre—made up of 32 small two-square meter rooms, for private viewing of DVDs and videos, on one floor in a seven-story multi-tenant building—in the Namba entertainment district of Osaka killed 16 people and injured 10.The video theatre, called Shishashitsu Cats theater, was open 24 hours and rented out rooms for ¥1,500 from 11:00pm to 10:00am. It was often used by people who missed the last train home or didn’t have much money and crashed out there in a pinch or as an alternative to sleeping on the street. The cubicles had enough floor space for a person to lie down. The fire destroyed 40 square meters of the 220 sq mt facility and damaged the walls of the building before it was put 90 minutes after it started. There were 26 customers all of them men and three employees in building when the fire broke out. The employees managed to escape but 15 customers believed to have been sleeping when the fire broke out didn’t make it out, with most of them dying from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by smoke inhalation. The fire was set around 3:00am by a 46 year old unemployed man, Kazuhiro Ogawa, who ignited some papers in the cubicle he was in. According to friends of Ogawa he lost his job and was divorced in 2001 and lost a lot of money gambling and owed million of yen to loan sharks. The rooms in the video were located off a narrow hallway. There was only one way out: via a door by the reception area, the windows were walled over and several of the exits were blocked. There was no sprinkler system or adequate smoke ventilation system. Even so an inspection a little over year earlier found nothing a miss. The manager switched off the fire alarm shortly after the fire broke out, thinking it was a false alarm. The evacuation lights were off making it difficult to find a way out. In July, 2001, eleven people were crushed to death and 129 people were injured on crowded overpass in Kobe after a fireworks display that drew 130,000 people. The 6-meter-wide, 100-meter overpasses crossed a busy highway and was on the primary route between the fireworks display site and the nearest subway station. The disaster occurred as the crowds began heading back to the subway station after the fireworks show finished as people were still arriving by train and directed to the overpass. The overpass became packed with people as people from both directions kept arriving. The pressure of all the pushing people was so great it caused the metal guardrail to bend and collapse. Most of the dead were children.
The deaths were blamed on inadequate crowd control measures and poor communications. Local government officials were blamed for the disaster by not making better plans and doing more to prevent things from getting out of hand when the overpass became crowded, a police official and four others were found guilty or professional negligence.
(Fire and smoke in Miyagi, Japan, 2006)
JAPAN RECOVERD IN JUST 3 MONTHS AFTER 2011 TREMOR:
The unforgiving tide of water obliterated tens of thousands of buildings, devouring almost anything in its path. Thousands of people died and hundreds of bodies have never been recovered.
The heart-breaking images of families desperately searching for loved ones amid the rubble of their homes sent shockwaves around the world.
Three months on, these images showed the Japanese people remain undaunted by the havoc nature has wrecked on their homeland as step by step they rebuild their nation.

 
(The pleasure boat ''Hamayuri'' washed up on the rooftop of an inn by tsunami)
But despite their progress, stark reminders of the work left to do, means the resilience of this Asian country is still being tested. Headway in the clean-up has been made in the town of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture where the pleasure boat ''Hamayuri'', which was remarkably washed up on the rooftop of an inn, has been removed, along with a building shattered by the the wall of water. Civilisation appears to have returned in Natori in Miyagi prefecture too. The first image shows a towering wall of ocean crashing through trees devastating homes and businesses lining the coast, tearing down power lines and drowning anything in its path.
Astonishingly just one house survived the wave and a lone digger is pictured having cleared away the once thriving community reduced to rubble. Hundreds of cars parked in the foreground remain abandoned and appear to be the only reminder of the devastation.
 Similarly, the striking image of a ship atop tonnes of rubble in the Kesennuma in Miyagi prefecture on March 20 was projected around the world and became a symbol of the disaster.
The photograph shows grey smoke filled skies above a path of destruction, but three months on, much of the debris has been cleared, power lines restored and hope is on the horizon.
 A car park in a shopping centre, filled with houses and debris in Otsuchi town in Iwate prefecture is also back on its feet and signs of life are returning. Parking spaces are clearly visible where piles of wood, bricks, and vehicles lay strewn just a few weeks ago.
( A view of earthquake and tsunami-hit Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture on March 15, top, and the same area pictured on June 3)
The final image shows local people walking through debris on a street in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture to get water 48 hours after the disaster. The same image on June 3 shows the massive tank which lay in the road has gone and a damaged house on the left side of the street has been cleared and restored. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake caused the worst crisis in Japan since the Second World War and left almost 28,000 people dead or missing. The clean-up bill is expected to top £184 billion and radiation fears from the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant are still growing after four of the reactors were damaged leading to radiation leaks. This week, an earless bunny was born near the reactor in north east Japan raising concerns the radiation could have long-term side effects.

Following the blast and initial leaks Japanese officials told people living near the plant to stay indoors and turn of air conditioning and also to not drink tap water.
High levels of radiation are known to cause cancer and other health problems but scientists are not yet clear if the defect in the rabbit is linked to the blast.

( Local residents walking through debris on a street in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, to get water 48 hours after the disaster, top, and the same area on June 3 where a large tank and a damaged house on the left side of the street have been cleared away)
Japan's economy slipped into recession following the devastation and new data shows it shrank 0.9 percent in the first quarter of this financial year but experts say a recovery later this year as industry kicks into action. Industrial output rose 1% in April from a record decline in March. Manufacturers are making progress in restoring supply chains and economists are predicting Gross Domestic Project to begin expanding again between July and September.
    ( Top, buildings are surrounded by debris in Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture, north eastern Japan, on March 16, 2011, days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit the area; and the same area, bottom, with the debris almost cleared)




(A burnt pickup truck lies among debris swept away by the tsunami, top, and marguerites are in bloom along a cleared street corner in the same area June 3, in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, North eastern Japan)
Japan is a country of natural hazards, is known to all. But the point is human makes these hazards more devastating and devious by their silly, idiotic and overwhelming works and attitudes. Thus the natural hazards become the poisonous result of human intervention. Human beings sometimes become very highly ambitious and highly expecting from their experiments; and to maintain this enthusiasm they do those things about which he should think for hundred times before committing these. For example, nuclear testing done by Government on the ocean or over in particular island (viz. French Polynesian island Tahiti for US).
              (Nuclear missiles)
 Due to continuous nuclear testing the pacific region near Japan has become unstable; besides this the zone already comes under unstable tectonic zone of Pacific ring of fire. Thus the creation of undesired tsunamis has become frequent in the Pacific coast of Japan.
                       (Poor fellow, victim of nuclear radiation, Japan)
    (Nuclear testing)                       (Consequence of the above good work)
There is another thing of intervention created by human beings in Japan which accelerates hazards. Recently, in Miyagi, Tokyo, Sendai, Tohoku & Kyoto massive excavation of surface land has been done; means, transportation lands carrying roadways, railways, all other connectivity are excavated. The objective was to construct gigantic typhoon & tsunami arresters. These arresters are massive in size and look like massive vacuum drums. Each of these arresters can afford a safe landing of a spacecraft within themselves! These massive drums have been constructed to control the force of Tsunamis & Typhoons and to utilize the excess water in different purposes by purifying it. Thus it was the plan to use these two giants in Human Development. But to achieve the target people have made their own virtue cracked. Because, due to the massive excavation the roadways and all transport routes and connectivity networks often collapse due to vacancy below it. This is not a new phenomenon in Japan. This system is also not so much fruitful, as these arresters did not become able to check the 2004 & 2006 typhoons & tsunamis. These arresters were flooded within a couple of seconds in 2004 typhoon. Actually what happens, when typhoon or tsunami comes then due to their copious force and power these arresters start shaking with an amazing geometrical order and create huge obstacles in the course of the water force of typhoons, water of typhoon is stored in those arresters. Thus the water velocity is reduced and gradually typhoon comes under control. But 2004 typhoon broke the bound. These arresters were filled within fraction of seconds as the water quantity was immeasurable. Besides, due to extensive vacuum area typhoon got more strength rather than being slowed down. Thus tremendous destruction was happened. Several roads collapsed. Traffic became clod, connectivity was ruined, Tokyo became isolated from other cosmopolitans. 
Another problem associated with human intervention regarding to the nuclear testing is nuclear diseases. Nuclear diseases are so dangerous and brutal that nobody can ever think about it. These are all due to human interventions. Images of diseases are piteous and horrific so images are not given.
  (Underwater nuclear reactor)
There is a specific type of cancer due to the radiation  which attacked children if the age group between 5 to 9 years. After they got attacked they looked horrible. Their skin got piled up and flesh began starting of getting black, black means carbon black; there were no chance for them to survive anymore after getting affected by radiation. Another type of disease of children due to this radiation is the abnormal growth of head in compared to the body. Means, body is looked smaller than head.
The subsequent tsunami wreaked further havoc on Japan’s infrastructure, breaking down transport lines and hampering rescue efforts. For example, Senen General’s food supply has been destroyed, and the tsunami cut power and running water to the facility, leaving patients and providers to eat frozen noodles and vegetables from a freezer. So far, four patients have died and another 80 were moved to a local shelter. Although drowning is a tsunami’s major cause of death, Japanese victims also risk developing aspiration-related illnesses, trauma and crush wounds and other diseases associated with contaminated water. According to physicians reporting in NEJM after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Takuapa General Hospital in Phangnga, Thailand, treated 2,285 trauma patients. In addition, a 2005 report in the journal Critical Care Medicine noted that 17 critical tsunami victims contracted unusual antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains. The earthquake also crippled three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which released radioactive vapors that may pose long-term health risks for local residents.
Japanese officials say radiation levels around the plant are eight times above normal and 1,000 times higher than the plant’s control room. A U.S. aircraft carrier 100 miles off the coast of Japan also has moved further offshore after crew members were exposed to low levels of radiation on the flight deck. Experts say wind likely will blow contamination over Pacific without affecting other countries.
Nuclear experts add that while the situation currently is contained, a full nuclear meltdown could pose significant health risks, according to the director of Texas Tech University’s Center for Environmental Radiation Studies.
(Heart breaking effect of nuclear radiation: an innocent Japanese lass)

 In the event of a full meltdown, health risks caused by the release of radioactive Iodine, Cesium and Strontium-90 could include acute radiation syndrome, specific types of cancer and stillbirths. Thyroid problems are particularly likely because the gland is unable to differentiate between radioactive and normal iodine.
Human beings are damaging their own habitation through these destructive interventions to natural hazards through their silly & stupid experiments. These are causing numerous new incurable diseases which bring only the option of a horrible death with them, nothing but this to the victims.
CONCLUSION:
From the above detailed discussion about the natural and man made hazards and their interventions by human beings, assessment of the available data this can be concluded that as a tremendously developed country in technologies Japan should use their latest technologies to get rid of the natural hazards & use the nuclear power very judiciously and the most important thing is that, government should not build nuclear reactors adjacent to the tsunami & typhoon prone areas. Because, government and people will become just silent audience, nothing but this if those giants come, there will be nothing to do. That is why, it is the peak time to take necessary steps & precautions for these sudden catastrophic events. Highly hazard prone areas must be evacuated or very meagre inhabitation must be there and also those will be unstable, because if condition compels people can abandon the places without any hiccups. The main matter which needs acute restriction is the frequent and unnecessary nuclear testing; this harms most rather than others. And the other important thing is that, government should not use the same place for nuclear testing for longer time. Excavation under important land or routes must be checked. Typhoons arresters will have to be more developed and sensitive. Meteorological department must install up to date instruments rather than less up to date instruments. Earthquakes are non-predictable but Tsunamis & Typhoons are predictable, so there should be latest system of alert with which it becomes possible to alert people about their propagation & location & how much time these will take to strike, so that they get sufficient time to get evacuated.
Last but not least, human awareness is very much necessary. Judicious and limited use of nuclear power is expected solely from Japan after the Tremor 2011.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
   
1.    2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
2.   Dimension & geographic distribution of Tsunami.
3.   Natural hazards in Japan
4.   Irradiation test of diagnostic components for ITER application in Japan material testing reactor.
5.   Japan did a come back just within 3 months after tremor 2011.
6.   Japan provided agricultural assistance to Luzon.
7.   Man made Disaster in Fukushima, Japan, 2011.
8.   Risk profile of Japan.
9.   Kyoto University’s work on typhoon pattern.
10.                        Low Vp and Vp/Vs zone beneath the northern Fossa Magna basin, central Japan, derived from a dense array observation.
11.                        Maps of metaphors in small eastern sea, Togukawa, Japan.
12.                        Nuclear Japan: Oxymoron or coming soon?
13.                        Radiation included electrical degradation experiments in Japan.
14.                        Seepage erosion & its implication in the formation of amphitheatre shaped valley heads: A case study of Obara, Japan.
15.                        Inflow and outflow facies from the 1993 tsunami in southwest Hokkaido.

16.                         Relaxation of Phosphorus Limitation Due to Typhoon-Induced Mixing in Two Morphologically Distinct Basins of Lake Biwa, Japan.

17.                        Circulation features associated with the record-breaking typhoon landfall on Japan in 2004.

18.                        The width of shore platform in Britain, Canada & Japan.

19.                        Dimensions and Geographic Distribution of Sources of Tsunami near Japan.

20.                        Thermal regime of sporadic permafrost in a block slope on Mt. Nishi-Nupukaushinupuri, Hokkaido Island, Northern Japan.

WEBSITES:
1.     www.jstor.org                                 images are taken from:
2.     www.googlescholar.com                   1. www.googleimages.com
3.     www.adhyapak.com                           2. Google earth
4.     www.indiastudychannel.com           3. www.imageshack.com