ABSTRACT
Some of the seasonal issues impact Japan and these can lead to considerable damage and loss of life. As single events, it is earthquakes that provide the greatest challenge. This chapter looks at how Japan responds to these challenges and potential disasters. The chapter looks at the media reporting and consider the problems of understanding events in Japan through the use of both Japanese and foreign media. It shows how the responses to disasters and how they are portrayed in the media is about building and rebuilding Japan, both in the literal sense: reconstruction, and also in terms of building an image of Japan. The chapter concludes by looking at Japan's desire to host major international events as a means to help construct an image of Japan on the global stage, and how this even got linked to the rebuilding after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011.
