Disaster Prevention Day
September 1st is National Disaster Prevention Day in Japan. The day was established to mark the Great Kantō Earthquake, which took place on this day in 1923. On September 1st, 2007, this year, a comprehensive disaster-preparedness drill was conducted at the Kokaigawa Citizens' Athletic Park by the dry riverbed of River Kokaigawa in Ryugasaki City. The drill envisioned a scenario where the city was hit by an earthquake measuring a high 6 on the Japanese scale, with a great number of casualties resulting from collapsed houses and fires.
An estimated 90 organizations, from citizen's groups to the Japanese Self-Defense Force, prefectural police and fire brigades, which added up to a total of 3,500 people, participated on the day. The drill included flood and water accident prevention, rescue and emergency aid transportation from wreck scenes, recovering lifelines, hot meal preparation, and so on.
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20 foreigners from within the prefecture also joined the event to learn first aid procedures and fire extinguishing methods, and some acted as interpreters in English, Mandarin, as well as Portuguese to give guidance for evacuation. According to the alien registration record of the prefecture, the number of foreign residents in Ibaraki has surpassed 53,000 as of December 2006.
Free emergency bags with sample emergency food and water were distributed to participants at the venue. On the bag, necessary items during an emergency, earthquake in this case, are listed out as a guideline, which can be seen from the pictures here and below. It is strongly recommended that you too prepare a similar bag.
Translation of back of bag
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"Heisei year 19 (2007), comprehensive disaster-preparedness drill of Ryugasaki City, Ibaraki Prefecture"
Contents listed from left to right:
- Address book of friends and relatives
- Cash (also coins for public telephones)
- Seal (inkan)
- Bankbook (note: normally, you should keep your inkan and bankbook separated)
- Food: bread, cookies, biscuits, etc.
- Portable radio
- Bottle of water
- Flashlight/torch
- Blanket
- Medicine
- Footwear
- Slippers
- Gloves
N.B.: in addition, it might also be a good idea to include:
- Passport
- Alien registration card, health insurance card, and photocopies of them
- 1 or 2 changes of socks and underwear
- Pen & paper
The bottom chart:
| Emergency evacuation center | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Address | |||||
| Name | Gender | Blood type | |||
Different areas of different cities have separate emergency evacuation centers. While the most common ones are primary/secondary schools and community centers, venues like welfare centres and nursery schools where water and electricity supplies are available can also be designated for use in an emergency. It is advisable that you find out where the nearest evacuation center is in your area.
Also, very importantly, in the case of a disaster, please remember to contact family and work/school-related persons (e.g. supervisor) after you are safely evacuated. There are also telephone disaster message board systems provided by NTT and each of the major cell phone companies.
Japan is prone to earthquakes and other disasters, and although Ibaraki is considered safe from severe earthquakes, it is very important to be prepared to minimize losses during an emergency, whether it be earthquake, typhoon, or flood.
