ABSTRACT
The Japanese archipelago is located at the intersection offour tectonic plates, creating a highly volatile level of volcanic activity over the centuries and an ongoing fear of earthquakes, localised lava flows and tidal waves. In 1991, Mt. Fugendake erupted after 200 years ofdormancy, killing forty-three people. In 1995, the Kobe Earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, killed some 5,500 people. Since the 1970s, there has been increasing public tension as scientific and popular predictions of a major quake in the Kantō region have intensified media coverage of the associated risks.
