The 2008 government white paper on disaster prevention points out that communities' capability to cope with disasters is in decline mainly because of the aging population and a drop in the number of people who work as community-based volunteer firefighters. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, in his October 2007 policy speech, set a goal of reducing to zero the deaths from disasters. But the report shows that this will be an uphill battle.
According to the white paper, released before the recent Tohoku quake, 34 people died in eight major natural disasters from the earthquake off Noto Peninsula on March 25, 2007, to rainstorms on Feb. 23-24, 2008.
While Japan is a country prone to natural disasters, people are not taking concrete actions to protect themselves in such events. The percentage of people who have fastened down their furniture and other objects inside residences has increased from 14.8 percent in 2002 to 24.3 percent in 2007. But the figure is still below the government goal of 60 percent. In the Niigata Chuetsu earthquake in October 2004, more than 40 percent of those injured were hurt by falling furniture.