The Japanese government decided on Friday (June 12) to update its basic disaster-preparedness plan for a possible major earthquake striking directly beneath the Tokyo metropolitan area, setting out measures for the next 10 years.
Under the revised plan, Tokyo and nine prefectures in and around the Kanto region will aim to cut both projected fatalities and building losses to half or less of the latest estimates released in December 2025.
Those estimates put potential deaths at up to 18,000 and the number of buildings destroyed or burned down at around 400,000.
The government also set a target for seismic circuit breakers, which shut off electricity when they detect tremors, to be installed in almost all households covered by the plan by fiscal 2035.
The installation rate stood at 20 per cent in fiscal 2024.
It is the first revision of the plan since 2015.
