Japanese Lawmakers Propose Tokyo Backup City

Some Japanese Lawmakers made a rather interesting proposal in case another Natural Disaster or another kind of emergency happens.

Cue the Tokyo-3 or Neo-Tokyo jokes.

And they didn't do that after the last dozen or so times?

Huh. The idea of being able to continue effective governance after another disaster does make sense...

Their problem with effective governance doesn't have to do with the city, though. They can't manage effective governance at all at the moment. Emergency plans are one thing, but this sounds like a massive waste of money. And I'm normally in favor of investment and emergency preparedness.

Why not build a second capital in Kyoto - if Tokyo is the heart of Japan, Kyoto is its soul. Kyoto was once the capital after all, and its such a beautiful city.

edited 2nd Nov '11 7:47:50 PM by MyGodItsFullofStars

Kyoto is a great city. Where are they planning to build it?

Isn't Japan up to its eyeballs in sovereign debt...?

Tokyo 02! Lol.

But on a serious note... Tokyo is so HUUUUUGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEE and I mean it, Ive been there and that city has no fucking end, that the idea of making a back-up is sort of silly.

You could throw Godzilla at it and 90% would be unafected.

edited 3rd Nov '11 6:27:09 AM by Baff

I can't read the article from here. If they decided to go through with the plan, where would they put it?

Am I a bad person for also thinking of this?

@ Meeble

The article says Osaka International Airport at Itami.

@ Rest

Why not just build a few backup buildings in a pre-existing city?

Or that:

edited 3rd Nov '11 11:19:29 AM by Octo

It's important to have a backup capital, it's imporatant that the whole federal goverment of Japan can survive a catastrophe. Yes, it's important to everyone!

edited 3rd Nov '11 1:13:29 PM by secretist

Japan's government isn't federal

What do you call the government of a unitary state then if you want to nitpick? Confederations and federations are confederate and federal repsectively.

I'm just saying that Tokyo is the seat of the Japan-wide governement that is higher than say prefecture level government.

The national government?

The national government is what I call unitary governments.

Or just "the X nation adjective Government," as in, "the Japanese Government."

If it's not the main government, I just call it "a local government in X country."

In the U.S. we have a bunch of bunkers in case of anything. Though some f*cking reporter found them and everyone knows where they are now, sor the point was kind of defeated.

The whole city idea obviously means they care about all of the citizens of the Tokyo metropolitan area rather than a limited number of bunkers designed to protect only VI Ps.

Ah. So vaults, then?

edited 3rd Nov '11 3:05:50 PM by Joesolo

Does Japan even have enough room to build another copy of Tokyo in it?

Sure. They had a whole part of the country rased by that tsunami, remember?

SO, for a backup city in case of a tusnami, you want to build it...where it could get hit by a tusnami? Thats about as smart as the guy who named his boat the Titanic II. It sunk, by the way.

edited 5th Nov '11 8:11:16 PM by Joesolo

Not really a backup city, it seems more like a backup government district. I assumed they already had a "continuity of government" contingency plan in effect.

Still, building enough infrastructure to house 250,000 people in one place during an emergency doesn't sound practical. Wouldn't it be more effective to build a decentralized complex of structures that can communicate with each other in case central control gets knocked out by another disaster?

Many of the US's contingency plans were designed during the Cold War, and were built with military effectiveness in mind. Japan's most likely danger comes from natural disasters. So their contingency plan should focus on getting food, water and supplies to effective areas and coordinating relief to where it is most needed. They don't need a complex to house an entire government's bureaucracy. They need to ensure that their existing agencies can respond to disaster when it hits without notice.

First, I would make sure that there's a viable means of mass evacuation from Tokyo. I mean, if Mount Fuji erupts, I do not want to be caught in traffic.