"It would not be surprising if a large earthquake were to hit the Tokai region, mainly Shizuoka Prefecture, tomorrow." The comment was made about thirty years ago by Katsuhiko Ishibashi, then science department assistant at the University of Tokyo, and it became a social issue. Seismologists still agree that the big one is certainly coming.

This area has been hit by disastrous earthquakes every 100 to 150 years, and the last one, the Ansei Tokai Earthquake, came in 1854. With a 150-year blank period, the region is considered to have accumulated the largest earthquake energy on the Pacific coast west of the Kanto region.



Shizuoka Prefecture, having suffered heavily from the tsunami caused by the Ansei Earthquake, has been preparing against the next one. Numazu City, located at the western root of Izu Peninsula, is a major city in eastern Shizuoka with a population of about 210,000. When the Tokai Earthquake occurs, a 2 to10-meter-high tsunami is expected to strike Numazu within 3 to 10 minutes, and the city is estimated to suffer over 80% of the total casualties in Shizuoka. In September last year, a floodgate called "Byuo," one of the largest in Japan, was constructed in Numazu Port to protect the heavy-populated city center. Besides "Byuo," the tour will visit Shizuura fishing district in suburban Numazu, and cover their tsunami countermeasures involving the local residents.

Defending against the wave (