Last Thursday, Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued its first-ever alert for a once-in-a-century megaquake along the Nankai Trough. So many superlatives in one announcement — the past week has felt as if the whole nation lay awake in nervous anticipation of the Big One.
The alert was lifted Aug. 15, but the agency has told people to remain vigilant. (Indeed, the one-week warning period was somewhat arbitrary to begin with.) Meanwhile, toilet paper has flown off the shelves, instant rice is backordered for months and everyone from local governments to Muji has issued disaster planning public service announcements.
Though the science of earthquake prediction is shaky, the anxiety people feel about potential natural disasters is very real. As TELL Japan clinical director Billy Cleary says, this is an unusual situation for the country in which the public is being told to be on high alert for a quake for a defined period of time.
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