NAHA, Okinawa Pref. -- In times when the water supply was chronically short, locals learned to cope by storing water on their own. Today, even though the supply is secure, they keep up the practice, saving it for a rainy day, as it were.
According to the Okinawa Prefectural Government, about 80 percent of all housing structures in the prefecture have water reserve tanks.
"They install tanks as a precautionary measure against the suspension of water supplies, which used to happen every year," a prefectural official said.