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Volcano and Geothermal Tourism in Japan – Examples from Honshu and Hokkaido  163



                                                                potential  to  erupt  again  in  the  future. As  noted
                                                                earlier there are 108 active volcanoes recognized
                                                                by the JMA, and regardless of their scenic beauty
                                                                and  associated  hot  springs  that  attract  sightseers
                                                                and  climbers,  most  of  the  recognized  volcanoes,
                                                                once reactivated, may cause serious destruction to
                                                                themselves and surrounding areas.
                                                                   Data  collected  by  the  JMA  on  the  patterns
                                                                and  scales  of  past  eruptions  are  used  as  basic
                                                                material  to  establish  hazard  maps  (charts  of
                                                                expected  damage  due  to  an  eruption)  by  local
                     Figure 10.3  The viewing platform on Mt Usu offers not   administrations.
                     only extensive views across Uchiura Bay (Volcano Bay)
                     but also offers access to a walking trail around the   Earthquakes and volcanism
                     crater rim, which can sometimes be closed off   Sorensen (2002, pp125–127) notes that the Great
                     depending on activity levels or gas emissions
                                                                Kanto (Tokyo-Yokohama) earthquake  (M8.3) of
                     Source: Photo courtesy of Patricia Erfurt-Cooper  1923 is recognized as perhaps the most devastating
                                                                to hit a developed country in the past 100 years.
                                                                The earthquake caused extensive damage in the
                     independent  of  the  seasons  and  walking  trails   cities of the region, destroying or damaging several
                     around  the  crater  area  are  used  at  times  of  low   hundred thousand homes and buildings, and the
                     level activity (Figure 10.3).
                                                                fires that followed caused more damage. The death
                     Risk management in                         toll is estimated to have been greater than 140,000
                     volcano tourism                            and over 44 per cent of the urban area of Tokyo
                                                                was destroyed by fire, with some 74 per cent of all
                     Japan is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters   households affected (Watanabe, 1993). This damage
                     because of its climate, tectonic vulnerability and   was comparable to the human and infrastructural
                     topography (Cooper and Erfurt, 2007), and level   damage caused by the later World War II bombing
                     of  development  (www.infojapan.org/policy/  in  the  same  area,  and  required  a  similar
                     disaster/21st/2.html).  Earthquakes  are  the  most   reconstruction effort. Legislation was brought in
                     common natural disaster; the country experiences   to  control  redevelopment  (the  Ad  Hoc  Town
                     more than 5000 per year, but they are by no means   Planning Act 1924) which had at its core a system
                     the only destructive force. The others range from   of ‘land readjustment’ where all land was pooled in
                     volcanic eruptions, through tsunamis and typhoons   specific  project  areas  and  public  purposes  land
                     to  heavy  pollution  of  the  natural  environment   (roads, parks – typically about 30 per cent of the
                     from inadequate waste management. A number of   total)  abstracted  before  individual  building  plots
                     physical factors contribute to the high incidence   were  reinstated  (Cooper  and  Erfurt,  2007). This
                     of natural disasters in Japan – these being extreme   system allowed reconstruction of road and other
                     climatic  variations,  rugged  topography  prone  to   public services before housing, and therefore aided
                     disturbance, and its location on the circum-pacific   rationalization  of  the  often  chaotic  building
                     ‘ring  of  fire’  in  which  most  of  the  world’s   patterns of earlier periods.
                     volcanoes are located and where the Pacific Plate   In terms of the implications of disaster and its
                     subduction zone is at its most active (Aramaki and   management for activities like tourism, the Kanto
                     Ui,  1982).  Furthermore,  the  fact  that  many   earthquake established two important precedents
                     earthquakes  are  combined  with  tsunamis  adds   for  Japan’s  ability  to  deal  with  such  events. The
                     another aspect to the complexity of disaster risk   first was the system of land readjustment described
                     management.  In  Japan,  volcanoes  which  have   above,  and  the  second  was  the  creation  of  the
                     erupted  in  the  past  10,000  years  are  defined  as   forerunner  of  an  important  class  of  public
                     active,  and  they  are  considered  to  have  the   organization,  the  Mutual  Prosperity  Association







       Ch10.indd   163                                                                             3/28/2010   1:29:12 PM
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