The devastation of the March 11 earthquake has prompted local governments and businesses to scramble for measures and proposals to mitigate future damage in this natural disaster-prone country.
The devastation of the March 11 earthquake has prompted local governments and businesses to scramble for measures and proposals to mitigate future damage in this natural disaster-prone country.
Their growing fears have not only led to flight of business operations to safer areas and raised calls for changes in the power generation system, but they are also rekindling calls to relocate capital functions out of Tokyo.
Thirty-five prefectures established a council at a meeting in Akita in mid-July to promote renewable energy sources and reduce the nation's dependence on nuclear power.
The first meeting attended by prefectural representatives, including 20 governors, adopted such slogans as: "Let's depart from nuclear power in the long run" and "Local energy production for local consumption."
The Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant accident and subsequent electricity shortage revealed the weaknesses of Japan's electricity supply system, which is based on an efficiency-first idea with power plants concentrated in certain areas.
The council wants to create a society that has a more even distribution of power plants, especially those that use renewables.
Yamanashi Prefecture, for example, is cooperating with Tokyo Electric Power Co. to build a large solar power plant in Kofu, with the start of commercial operations set for January 2012, ahead of schedule.
Akita Prefecture is also strongly promoting the use of wind and geothermal power generation.
"We aim to produce and supply energy within the prefecture by the end of 2030," Akita Governor Norihisa Satake said.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami not only triggered the nuclear crisis in Fukushima Prefecture, they also caused many municipalities to cease to function. Some municipal offices were destroyed; others were eventually relocated out of the disaster zone.
Now, as concerns grow that Tokyo--the nation's political and economic nerve center--could soon be crippled by the expected "big one," calls have been revived to limit such damage.
The government's Central Disaster Prevention Council estimates economic damage could reach 112 trillion yen if a huge inland quake hits the Tokyo area, far exceeding that of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Hajime Ishii, vice president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, also serves as president of an association of Diet members promoting urban crisis management.
The association has suggested establishing a substitute national capital at the site of Osaka International Airport in Itami in case of an emergency. It plans to submit a bill to the Diet as early as in autumn.
Ishii oversaw a meeting in Tokyo between Osaka Governor Toru Hashimoto and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara in early July on this subject.
The Kansai Union of seven prefectural governments has also compiled a plan in May to back up Tokyo metropolitan functions if they are rendered inoperable in an earthquake.
Relocating the capital functions out of Tokyo is an idea often discussed in the central government in the past, but it has never taken off due mainly to conflicting interests between regions hoping to be selected.
But the March earthquake has brought a sense of urgency to the proposal, Ishii said.
And Prime Minister Naoto Kan told a Diet session that the government should consider countermeasures based on lessons learned from the March 11 earthquake.
Some companies are also shifting away from Tokyo to reduce the risks.
Kenko.com Inc., a major online seller of medicine and other consumer goods, had a huge number of orders for bottled water and batteries immediately after the March 11 earthquake struck.
But due to damage to a warehouse and rolling blackouts, it took the Tokyo-based company a week to distribute the products.
"If we operate only in Tokyo, we cannot possibly play a role of becoming a lifeline in an emergency," Kenko.com President Genri Goto told employees in late March in announcing the opening of an office in Fukuoka, staffed by several dozen people.
"The transfer is costly," Goto said. "But it will enhance our competitiveness by diversifying the risk."
At the Yahata plant of Nippon Steel Corp. in Kita-Kyushu, construction is under way for a huge container-like structure for the data center operated by IDC Frontier Inc., a Yahoo Japan unit.
It is the third facility of its kind, and a decision was made in June to build a fourth building.
IDC Frontier says that by next spring, the facilities will accommodate more than 80,000 servers.
The data center is the lifeline of the company, which processes enormous amounts of data day and night and requires large amounts of electricity to cool down the servers.
An estimated 70 percent of data centers are concentrated in the Kanto region.
Immediately after the earthquake, some of the centers overcame planned blackouts by using in-house power generation.
IDC Frontier strengthened its Kita-Kyushu unit after the earthquake and started to doubly save the data.
Inquiries about the company's services have increased several-fold since the pre-quake days.
"Many clients considered having a data center close to their company. But now, the location in Kita-Kyushu is one of our strong sales points," an IDC Frontier executive said.
Other companies want to shift their operations.
A survey by Teikoku Databank Inc. in May found 599 companies, or 5.4 percent of those surveyed, said they "may transfer their operation bases."
But some remain undecided due to an expected spread of electric shortages in wider areas.
Orix Corp., based in Tachikawa, Tokyo, had considered moving its operations to Osaka. But the general leasing company suspended the plan after Kansai Electric Power Co. shut down a reactor that supplies electricity to Osaka and surrounding areas.