Tokyo, Nov. 3 (Jiji Press)--Japan's National Disaster Management Agency, launched Monday, faces a test as to whether the new government agency can sufficiently play a central role in implementing measures to reduce damage from major natural disasters.
On Monday, disaster management minister Goshi Hosono issued an emergency request for people in the country to thoroughly take measures to reduce disaster damage, stressing that preparing for national crisis-level disasters is the new agency's primary mission.
It is very unusual for the government to issue such a request at normal times. Close attention is being paid to whether effective disaster reduction measures will be implemented.
The probability of a major earthquake occurring in the Nankai Trough in the Pacific off central to western Japan within the next 30 years is about 60 to 90 pct or more, according to the government's earthquake research commission.
"We have received no special information on earthquake prediction," Hosono told a press conference Monday. At the same time, he said he wants people to take disasters as their own issue, urging each citizen to prepare for disasters.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
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