Each local government has an evacuation plan to cope with major earthquakes. But there is a blind spot. Evacuation plans for individual large buildings are almost lacking. The government plans to revise the Fire Service Law to make it mandatory for owners of facilities such as hotels, department stores and hospitals to work out a firefighting plan and set up an in-house firefighting unit in the event of the big one. It hopes to have the revision go into effect by the summer of 2009 after Diet approval in the current session. Concrete measures need to be taken as soon as possible at the private-sector level.

The revision will apply to buildings used by large numbers of the public: those whose total floor space amounts to 50,000 sq. meters or more, and buildings of five stories or higher whose total floor space amounts to 20,000 sq. meters or more.

The revision is relevant in view of the fact that the number of high-rise buildings with a height of at least 31 meters has increased by more than 50 percent in the past 10 years to about 37,000. Some super high-rise buildings attract more than 100,000 people a day. There are also about 2,700 shopping centers, some of which have a floor space of more than 100,000 sq. meters and are visited on some days by 50,000 to 60,000 people.