Tokyo braces for typhoons, earthquakes

TOKYO – The coronavirus might top the risks at the Tokyo Olympics, but organizers in Japan have other deadly, unpredictable threats to contend with: natural disasters.

Japan is regularly rattled by earthquakes and battered by typhoons, and experts warn that disaster preparation for a major event like the Games should not take a back seat because of the virus.

“For organizers, infection measures are an urgent challenge,” Hirotada Hirose, a specialist in disaster risk studies, told AFP.

“But the risks of a major earthquake mustn’t be forgotten when you have an Olympics hosted by Japan,” added Hirose, professor emeritus at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University.

Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches throughout southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin.

The country is also home to numerous active volcanos and is regularly hit by typhoons in the season that runs from around May to October.