As for earthquakes and tsunamis, the damage to be caused by the Nankai Trough Mega Earthquake and Tokyo Inland Earthquake was anticipated in accordance with the damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and other earthquakes, and structural and non-structural measures are being taken to cope with the largest earthquake ground motion and tsunami.

On the other hand, as for flood and so on, facilities have been installed to cope with rainfall, etc. that does not occur too frequently, the hazard maps showing the damage to be caused by such rainfall, etc. have been created, and non-structural measures such as improvement of weather information has been taken. However, no measures have been formulated against the largest class rainfall. Therefore, flood measures in non-structural and structural perspectives need to be taken with a view to the “worst”.

The “ideal way of disaster prevention and reduction for coping with new stage (hereinafter referred to as the “ideal way”) basically aims to protect human lives using facilities against the rainfall, etc. that occurs relatively frequently. Against the extraordinarily heavy rainfall and so on that occur rarely, the policy aims to “protect human lives at least and avoid catastrophic damage to the socioeconomy” and respond to it by taking mainly non-structural measures. The basic concept is to “protect human lives” and avoid catastrophic damage to the socioeconomy”.

Specifically, in order to “protect human lives”, it is necessary for the residents not only to escape when warned to evacuate their area (“instruction awaiting” type evacuation) but also to escape themselves according to the “condition information” about the amount of rainfall, etc. (“independent action” type evacuation). Also, in order to “avoid catastrophic damage to the socioeconomy”, all interested parties of national and local public entities, enterprises, etc. must share the sense of crisis to take social measures on the assumption of the worst case. In order to take specific actions in accordance with the “ideal way” summarized in January, 2015, the Regional Development Bureau started at the end of March, 2015, estimation of the damage to be caused by large-scale flooding, etc. that could occur in Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka in cooperation with the relating local governments, local enterprises, economic organizations, etc.

## (2) Responding to Climate Change

It is feared that water disaster (flood, inland water, or storm surge), sediment-related disasters, and drought damage occur more frequently and seriously due to the climate change caused by global warming. In order to address this fear, the “Panel on Infrastructure Development River Subcommittee’s Subcommission to Evaluate Flood Control Measures for Climate Change” conducted study and revealed the “About the Ideal Way of Climate Change Measures in the Water Disaster Field – Toward the Society that Shares Disaster Risk Information to Mitigate Disasters – Midterm Summary” in February, 2015. In order to cope with the water disasters which are getting more serious, it is important to steadily carry out construction and improvement of facilities as adaptive measures. In addition, the whole society needs to share disaster risk information and take measures to mitigate disasters on the assumption of the cases where the facilities cannot avoid disasters.

As for the measures to be taken against the disasters in coast areas, the “Committee for Study Influence of Climate Change in Coast Areas (Seaport and Seashore) and Direction of Coping” will study the direction of measures and summarize it in April, 2015.

Based on the abovementioned summaries, the relevant authorities will cooperate to implement the measures to cope with the disasters in coast areas.

## (3) Preventing and Mitigating Water Disasters

Large-scale water disasters caused by tropical cyclones or the like (for example, disasters caused by Typhoon Wipha visited Izu Oshima Island and other regions in Japan in 2013 and storm surge disasters caused by Hurricane Sandy in US in 2012) are getting more frequent and serious. With this situation in mind, the “Underground Mall, Subway, Etc. Working Group” and “Disaster Action Plan Working Group” have been set up under the “Water Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Headquarters, MLIT” chaired by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in January, 2014, to study the measures to be taken when water disasters occur.

The “Underground Mall, Subway, Etc. Working Group” sorts out underground space problems in cooperation with the relevant bureaus, determines the measures to take, and provides information to the administrators of underground malls, subways, and connected buildings.

The “Disaster Action Plan Working Group” created timelines focused on the evacuation order and others for the