Commentary: Japan is living under the shadow of a devastating earthquake

No one knows if it’s time to panic.

Adding to the confusion, the alert came just as Japanese prepared to go out en masse to celebrate Obon, an unofficial summer holiday when city dwellers typically return to their hometowns.

It’s another looming but invisible threat as the country faced the possibility of its first mortgage rate hike in more than a decade last week and Market crash and rebound Few people have experienced

Relatives around the table will have a lot to say. Recall the last major earthquake, which occurred on New Year’s Day in January this year, when people were recovering from the festive feast.

No one knows whether it’s time to panic. For some, it’s a good reminder to check Status of emergency supplies and equipmentOthers responded with humour, with one person pointing out online that since Google Maps allows reviews for the Nankai Trough, we should appease it with a string of five-star reviews.

Others, like Robert Geller, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, argue that any prediction is a waste of time and distracts authorities from preparing for unforeseen earthquakes — a category that includes all of Japan’s recent devastating disasters, from the Kobe earthquake to 2011.

Another, more serious risk is the threat of “crying wolf.” The alarm is alarming; if nothing happens, will future warnings be ignored, even though the real danger may have increased significantly? It reminds me of attitudes toward less natural threats—North Korean missiles that sometimes fly over the country—which once halted transportation but now tend to cause yawns.

In all likelihood, the big earthquake won’t happen, and the episode will be forgotten. But while we’re always thinking about slow-moving problems — exercising to reduce our risk of heart disease, reducing carbon emissions to curb climate change, saving a fortune to weather the next recession — the alarm is a reminder that nature doesn’t operate on such a timetable.

For residents of Japan, this is a chance to prepare and check evacuation routes. And for all of us, this is a moment to reflect on how fragile the world we have built is, and how quickly it can be upended.