DISASTER PREPAREDNESS IN JAPAN:
I write, of course, from Japan. You know, the Japan that makes social-democrat/third-way types feel all warm and fuzzy? The Japan in which enlightened technocrats, enshrined in the federal ministries in Kasumigaseki and insulated from elections and politicking and evil market forces and stuff, guide the nation toward a bright nationally-insured future? Yeah, the bloom is somewhat off the economic rose, but in social policy terms, a lot of my left-leaning acquaintances still swoon over the degree of ministry control here.
Well, I will tell you as someone who has lived here for a decade: what you hear about disaster preparedness ALWAYS involves local intiatives. . . . In Japan, what we’re told is this: A disaster may render you unreachable. It may cut you off from communication networks and utilities. The appropriate government agencies (starting at the neighborhood level and moving upward depending on the magnitude of the damage) will respond as quickly as they can, but you may be on your own for days until they do. Prepare supplies. Learn escape routes. Then learn alternate escape routes. Know what your region’s points of vulnerability are. Get to know your neighbors (especially the elderly or infirm) so you can help each other out and account for each other. Follow directions if you’re told to evacuate. Stay put if you aren’t. Participate in the earthquake preparation drills in your neighborhood.
If that’s the attitude of people in collectivist, obedient, welfare-state Japan, it is beyond the wit of man why any American should be sitting around entertaining the idea that Washington should be the first (or second or fifteenth) entity to step in and keep the nasty wind and rain and shaky-shaky from hurting you. Sheesh.
Read the whole thing (Via Virginia Postrel).
UPDATE: Reader Peter Murphy emails from Madrid:
Your post on Japanese disaster preparation reminded me an experience I had last year with some Japanese workers in my office building. I work in a seven story building in Madrid, Spain and each year the mangement conducts the standard fire drill which consists of someone sounding the fire alarm and everyone in the building exiting by way of the staircases. I timed it and it took me 10 minutes to exit from my office on the sixth floor. “Not good” I though as I exited only to find the majority of the office workers from the lower floors loitering about the exits, smoking cigarettes, hindering my “escape” and blocking the firefighters’ entry. As I struggled to get through this crowd of ambivalent Spaniards I looked across the street and see three small groups of Japanese workers (presumably from the Japanese bank office in my building). They are ALL wearing miner style helmets with attached flash-lights and fluorescent vests. They were separated into groups of 10 or so and one from each group was conducting what appeared to be a head count as another member diligently rummaged through a well-stocked first aid kit conducting what appeared to be an inventory check. As my co-workers took delight in mocking our Japanese friends I thought to myself “if there is a real disaster I know who will be getting the last laugh.”
Indeed. There is an ant-and-grasshopper aspect to this subject, which doesn’t get enough attention.