It has officially existed since 1967: that year, a disaster prevention day was set up on September 1, in memory of the great earthquake disaster in eastern Japan, which killed more than 100,000 people on September 1. September 1923. Then, one day not being enough to raise awareness of the need to prepare for the worst, the government decided, starting in 1983, to make a whole week available for disaster prevention.
This week is held from August 30 to September 5 every year. And apart from that, there has also been since 2011, the year of the tsunami and the Fukushima accident, a tsunami prevention day set for it on November 5, which is also the anniversary of a tsunami that occurred in 1854.
This gives rise to multiple training sessions based on very different scenarios. For example, a large earthquake was simulated on Thursday September 1 in Tokyo and forced public transport to be all stopped. We evacuated buildings. Companies have asked their staff to leave their post in an emergency, to descend 10 or 20 floors by the stairs because the elevators are voluntarily stopped, as they would be in the event of a real earthquake.
Firefighters, for their part, organize first aid training or simulations with a truck that simulates shaking, and schools are also on alert. For example, children are held there until their parents pick them up. And then, you also normally have to have survival equipment at home, which, unfortunately, is not the case for a large number of households.