scholarly journals A Historical Study on Relationship between the Transfer from Streetcars to Local Railways and the Development in Tokyo Metropolitan Area before the World War II

1997 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 487-493
Author(s):  
Takatoshi TAMEKUNI ◽  
Takashi MATSUMOTO ◽  
Saburo NAKAGAWA
2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-94
Author(s):  
Suminao Murakami ◽  

This review presents historical transformation on urban planning approaches in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Urban areas in Japan have always been threated by urban conflagrations due to the high number of wooden structures. The Tokyo metropolitan area which was previously known as Edo until the Meiji Revolution in 1864. Dramatic changes in power was successful but few urban structure reformation occurred, and Tokyo was damaged by urban conflagrations in the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa Eras. The fervent wishes of Japanese urban planners centered on construction of fireproof urban areas. Such wishes accounted for little in actual policy, however, as witnessed to by the failure of Tokyo officials to construct fireproof urban architectures following the massive destruction left by World War II. In September 1959, the Ise-Wan (Ise Bay) Typhoon caused tremendous damage and left over 5,000 dead. As measures against such disasters, the Japanese government enacted the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act in 1961. Howevers, measure against Earthquake-induced disasters were yet far from sufficient although Japan experienced hit by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. In 1964, the Niigata Earthquake clearly demonstrated modern Niigata City's vulnerability to earthquakes despite its facilities for the National Sports Festival were equipped with modern technology, all of these facilities were destroyed. Reflecting such disasters, reexamination of measure against earthquake disaster began at coastal cities of Japan, which were constructed in post war time. This paper tracks developments in Japanese urban planning movement that the author took part in for about 20 years from 1964.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5786
Author(s):  
Bismark Adu-Gyamfi ◽  
Rajib Shaw

Many disasters occur in Japan, and therefore many initiatives to educate and integrate foreign residents into its society to overcome systematic barriers and enhance disaster preparedness have been implemented. Nevertheless, studies have highlighted foreign residents as a vulnerable group who are at risk of disasters in the country. The country anticipates and prepares for potential mega-disasters in the future; therefore, effective risk communication is vital to creating the required awareness and preparation. Therefore, this study looked at the changing foreigner–Japanese population mix in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area to ascertain its level of diversity and risk communication characteristics. It used secondary and primary data to analyze how heterogeneity among foreigners translates into a different understanding of their awareness. The study reveals that the 23 special wards within the Tokyo Metropolitan area can be compared to other recognized diverse cities in the world, with Shinjuku city, Minato city, Arakawa, and Taito cities being the most heterogeneous cities in Tokyo. Nevertheless, diversity within foreign residents creates diversity in information-gathering preferences, disaster drill participation preferences, and the overall knowledge in disaster prevention. The study suggests the use of these preferences as a tool to promote targeted risk communication mechanisms.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suguru Yabe ◽  
Kazutoshi Imanishi ◽  
Kiwamu Nishida

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic that started at the end of 2019 forced populations around the world to reduce social and economic activities; it is believed that this can prevent the spread of the disease. In this paper, we report a seismic noise analysis during such an induced social activity reduction taking the Tokyo Metropolitan area, Japan. Using seismic data obtained from 18 stations in the Metropolitan Seismic Observation Network (MeSO-net), a two-step seismic noise reduction in the frequency bands 1–20 Hz and 20–40 Hz was observed during the timeline of COVID-19 in Tokyo. The first noise reduction occurred at the beginning of March in the frequency band 20–40 Hz. This corresponded with the request of the Prime Minister of Japan for a nationwide shutdown of schools. Although social activity was not reduced significantly at this juncture, local reduction of seismic wave excitation in the high frequency band, 20–40 Hz, was recorded at some MeSO-net stations located in school properties. The second reduction of seismic noise occurred at the end of March to the beginning of April 2020 in the frequency band 1–20 Hz. This timing corresponds to when the Governors of the Tokyo Metropolitan area requested citizens to stay home and when the state of emergency was declared for the Tokyo Metropolitan area by the government, respectively. The estimated population at train stations abruptly dropped since this timing, which suggests that social activity was severely reduced. Such large-scale change in social activity affects the seismic noise level in the low frequency bands. The seismic noise level started to increase from the middle of May correlating with increase in population at the train stations. This suggests that social activity restarted even before the state of emergency was lifted at the end of May. The two-step seismic noise reduction observed in this study has not been reported in other cities around the world. Unexpected reduction of social activity due to COVID-19 provided us a rare opportunity to investigate the characteristics of seismic noise caused by human activities.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suguru Yabe ◽  
Kazutoshi Imanishi ◽  
Kiwamu Nishida

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic that started at the end of 2019 forced populations around the world to reduce social and economic activities; it is believed that this can prevent the spread of the disease. In this paper, we report an analysis of the seismic noise during such an induced social activity reduction in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan. Using seismic data obtained from 18 stations in the Metropolitan Seismic Observation Network (MeSO-net), a two-step seismic noise reduction was observed during the timeline of COVID-19 in Tokyo. The first noise reduction occurred at the beginning of March 2020 in the frequency band of 20–40 Hz. This corresponded with the request by the Prime Minister of Japan for a nationwide shutdown of schools. Although social activity was not reduced significantly at this juncture, local reduction of seismic wave excitation in the high frequency band, 20–40 Hz, was recorded at some MeSO-net stations located in school properties. The second reduction of seismic noise occurred at the end of March to the beginning of April 2020 in a wider frequency band including lower frequency bands of 1–20 Hz. This timing corresponds to when the Governors of the Tokyo metropolitan area requested citizens to stay home and when the state of emergency was declared for the Tokyo metropolitan area by the government, respectively. Since then, the estimated population at train stations abruptly dropped, which suggests that social activity was severely reduced. Such large-scale changes in social activity affect the seismic noise level in low frequency bands. The seismic noise level started to increase from the middle of May correlating with increase in population at the train stations. This suggests that social activity restarted even before the state of emergency was lifted at the end of May. The two-step seismic noise reduction observed in this study has not been reported in other cities around the world. Unexpected reduction of social activity due to COVID-19 provided a rare opportunity to investigate the characteristics of seismic noise caused by human activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suguru Yabe ◽  
Kazutoshi Imanishi ◽  
Kiwamu Nishida

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic that started at the end of 2019 forced populations around the world to reduce social and economic activities; it is believed that this can prevent the spread of the disease. In this paper, we report an analysis of the seismic noise during such an induced social activity reduction in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan. Using seismic data obtained from 18 stations in the Metropolitan Seismic Observation Network (MeSO-net), a two-step seismic noise reduction was observed during the timeline of COVID-19 in Tokyo. The first noise reduction occurred at the beginning of March 2020 in the frequency band of 20–40 Hz. This corresponded with the request by the Prime Minister of Japan for a nationwide shutdown of schools. Although social activity was not reduced significantly at this juncture, local reduction of seismic wave excitation in the high-frequency band, 20–40 Hz, was recorded at some MeSO-net stations located in school properties. The second reduction of seismic noise occurred at the end of March to the beginning of April 2020 in a wider frequency band including lower frequency bands of 1–20 Hz. This timing corresponds to when the Governors of the Tokyo metropolitan area requested citizens to stay home and when the state of emergency was declared for the Tokyo metropolitan area by the government, respectively. Since then, the estimated population at train stations abruptly dropped, which suggests that social activity was severely reduced. Such large-scale changes in social activity affect the seismic noise level in low-frequency bands. The seismic noise level started to increase from the middle of May correlating with increase in population at the train stations. This suggests that social activity restarted even before the state of emergency was lifted at the end of May. The two-step seismic noise reduction observed in this study has not been reported in other cities around the world. Unexpected reduction of social activity due to COVID-19 provided a rare opportunity to investigate the characteristics of seismic noise caused by human activities.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suguru Yabe ◽  
Kazutoshi Imanishi ◽  
Kiwamu Nishida

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic that started at the end of 2019 forced populations around the world to reduce social and economic activities; it is believed that this can prevent the spread of the disease. In this paper, we report an analysis of the seismic noise during such an induced social activity reduction in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan. Using seismic data obtained from 18 stations in the Metropolitan Seismic Observation Network (MeSO-net), a two-step seismic noise reduction was observed during the timeline of COVID-19 in Tokyo. The first noise reduction occurred at the beginning of March 2020 in the frequency band of 20–40 Hz. This corresponded with the request by the Prime Minister of Japan for a nationwide shutdown of schools. Although social activity was not reduced significantly at this juncture, local reduction of seismic wave excitation in the high frequency band, 20–40 Hz, was recorded at some MeSO-net stations located in school properties. The second reduction of seismic noise occurred at the end of March to the beginning of April 2020 in a wider frequency band including lower frequency bands of 1–20 Hz. This timing corresponds to when the Governors of the Tokyo metropolitan area requested citizens to stay home and when the state of emergency was declared for the Tokyo metropolitan area by the government, respectively. Since then, the estimated population at train stations abruptly dropped, which suggests that social activity was severely reduced. Such large-scale changes in social activity affect the seismic noise level in low frequency bands. The seismic noise level started to increase from the middle of May correlating with increase in population at the train stations. This suggests that social activity restarted even before the state of emergency was lifted at the end of May. The two-step seismic noise reduction observed in this study has not been reported in other cities around the world. Unexpected reduction of social activity due to COVID-19 provided a rare opportunity to investigate the characteristics of seismic noise caused by human activities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (10) ◽  
pp. 2027-2041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryohei Misumi ◽  
Yoshinori Shoji ◽  
Kazuo Saito ◽  
Hiromu Seko ◽  
Naoko Seino ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Tokyo Metropolitan Area Convection Study for Extreme Weather Resilient Cities (TOMACS) began as a Japanese domestic research project in 2010 and aimed to elucidate the mechanisms behind local high-impact weather (LHIW) in urban areas, to improve forecasting techniques for LHIW, and to provide high-resolution weather information to end-users (local governments, private companies, and the general public) through social experiments. Since 2013, the project has been expanded as an international Research and Development Project (RDP) of the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Through this project, the following results were obtained: 1) observation data for LHIW around Tokyo were recorded using a dense network of X-band radars, a C-band polarimetric radar, a Ku-band fast-scanning radar, coherent Doppler lidars, and the Global Navigation Satellite System; 2) quantitative precipitation estimation algorithms for X-band polarimetric radars have been developed as part of an international collaboration; 3) convection initiation by the interaction of sea breezes and urban impacts on the occurrence of heavy precipitation around Tokyo were elucidated by a dense observation network, high-resolution numerical simulations, and different urban surface models; 4) an “imminent” nowcast system based on the vertically integrated liquid water derived from the X-band polarimetric radar network has been developed; 5) assimilation methods for data from advanced observation instruments such as coherent Doppler lidars and polarimetric radars were developed; and 6) public use of high-resolution radar data were promoted through the social experiments.


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