A year on: Tourism shudders in quake-hit Japan

Wed, 02/29/2012 - 23:55 — Anonymous by Jessica OcheltreeThe earthquake and
tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011 killed almost 20,000 people and laid
waste vast tracts of land and property. Yet that disaster pales in comparison
with the fact that Tokyo is long overdue for a massive earthquake of its own.
With upward of 35 million residents in the metropolitan area, Tokyo is both
the financial and the political capital of Japan, as well as the home of the
Imperial family. A mega earthquake would not just level the metropolis, but
cripple the country for decades to come. The last time Tokyo was hit by a
major earthquake was in 1923, when more than 100,000 died in the Great Kanto
Earthquake. The government's Earthquake Research Promotion agency has revised
the likelihood of a magnitude-7.0 or higher quake hitting the Kanto region
surrounding Tokyo to 70 percent over the next 30 years. Now, though,
researchers at Tokyo University are saying we could well see that large a
temblor in the next four years -- startling numbers that were picked up by a
number of major news outlets, both in Japan and out.read more