Japan is an earthquake cultured country having the most seismically active areas in the world.
The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
The recent earthquake that struck Japan is an 8.9 magnitude and one of the strongest earthquake in that country in 140 years.
Earthquake experts in the U.S. say, that Japan has the strongest building standards in the world for withstanding earthquakes.
It trains and prepares more for them. It has adopted an expensive earthquake early warning system that gave people a precious few seconds to duck and cover.
If it were not of Japan’s strong building code standard in their design and construction of buildings, the devastation must have been worse, worst than what had happened in Haiti.
Japan being economically well off, is also the most earthquake-prepared country in the world. Haiti is no way could be inadvertently compared to Japan, Haiti a poor country, most of its buildings were haphazardly constructed with no stringent codes in place.
In the construction industry of building and infrastructure, the most stringent standard of specification one has to adopt, the most expensive construction of that building or infrastructure would become.
Is it not that what has transpired in Japan, is a ‘tug of war’ scenario between man and nature, where man failed to completely dominate and neutralize the wrath of nature, the first has evidently become subservient while the latter prevailed?
Could creating and perfecting a sophisticated technology to withstand the wrath of nature be a future distinct possibility and the only way out for man to prevail against nature?
If ever that happens, it might not be in our lifetime but it would leave man to work very hard of how he can cope the eventualities and challenges posed by nature in the future.
