Because earthquakes are unpredictable, people who live with them are fatalistic: There's nothing you can do except hope you're in a place that doesn't fall down on top of you. This attitude only covers naked survival, which to most people means everything, but experts predict that in a worst case scenario involving a major quake in Tokyo, about 11,000 people will die, which is a small percentage of the city's population, so the real question about such a disaster is what happens afterward.

The July 23 temblor was relatively benign: no one died and there were only a handful of injuries. Damage was negligible. The scariest thing about the quake was how poorly the authorities reacted to it. At the basic level, thousands of people were stranded because many of the train and subways systems shut down, some for hours, which is to be expected.

What was disconcerting was the lack of consideration given to passengers, who were never told how long they might have to wait for a train. Such a response epitomizes the worst aspect of the bureaucratic mindset: it's best to act ignorant, otherwise people expect something.