Earthquakes Japan 2012

This is an overview of all the earthquakes in Japan in 2012, sorted per magnitude and shindo (震度, shaking intensity). This data was generated by using the Japan Meteorological Agency database.

The most earthquakes in a single category were shindo 1 and magnitude 3-3.9, the total amount was one third from last year.
Shindo 1 earthquakes ranged from magnitude 0 to 6.9.
Shindo 2 earthquakes ranged from magnitude 1 to 6.9.
Shindo 3 earthquakes ranged from magnitude 2 to 6.9.
Shindo 4 earthquakes ranged from magnitude 3 to 7.9.
Shindo 5- earthquakes ranged from magnitude 5 to 7.9.
Shindo 5+ earthquakes ranged from magnitude 5 to 6.9.

Below the frequency distribution of earthquakes during the year is shown:

Comparing the JMA statistics with the data from their database, five earthquakes were missing from the data in the database (four of shindo 1 and one of shindo 3).

JMA:

Intensity	震度７	震度６強	震度６弱	震度５強	震度５弱	震度４	震度３	震度２	震度１	Total
2012	0	0	0	4	12	65	232	816	2010	3139

Database:

Intensity	震度７	震度６強	震度６弱	震度５強	震度５弱	震度４	震度３	震度２	震度１	Total
2012	0	0	0	4	12	65	231	816	2006	3134

News in Japan - December

Japan
LDP: Gays don't need special rights

Sony Loses Science Talent as Student Resumes Go to Dairies: Tech

Quarter of workers in Japan experience 'power harassment'

51% think wives should stay home

Probability of strong quakes revised upward for eastern Japan

Getting old after getting rich: comparing China with Japan

Switching to mama mode is not easy for today's gals.

Radiation fears linked to obesity in Japan

Beyond Invisibility Great East Japan Disaster and LGBT in Northeast Japan 

Other

'Atheïsts are persecuted and disadvantaged'(Dutch)

A report from the International Humanist and Ethical Union reports that atheists are at the risk being executed in 7 countries. Not only Islamic countries, but even the USA and some European countries are biased towards religious organizations. As example, there is a constitutional article in 7 states of the USA preventing atheists from holding a public office function.

Population Statistics

Netherlands						Difference	Percentage
Age		2010	2010 (%)	2025	2025 (%)		%
0-14 yo		2,913,000	17.58	2,784,000	15.92	-1.66	95.57
15-24 yo		2,028,000	12.24	2,023,000	11.57	-0.67	99.75
25-44 yo		4,477,000	27.01	4,295,000	24.56	-2.45	95.93
45-64 yo		4,618,000	27.86	4,587,000	26.23	-1.63	99.33
³ 65 yo		2,538,000	15.31	3,798,000	21.72	6.41	149.65
USA
Age		2000	2000 (%)	2030	2030 (%)
0-17 yo		72,293,812	25.69	85,707,297	23.57	-2.12	118.55
18-24 yo		27,143,454	9.65	32,532,779	8.95	-0.70	119.85
25-44 yo		85,040,251	30.22	91,610,717	25.20	-5.02	107.73
45-64 yo		61,952,636	22.01	82,280,171	22.63	0.62	132.81
³ 65 yo		34,991,753	12.43	71,453,471	19.65	7.22	204.20
Japan
Age	2010		2010 (%)	2030	2030 (%)
0-14 yo	17,074,000		13.40	13,233,000	11.30	-2.10	77.50
15-64 yo	81,665,000		64.10	69,576,000	59.20	-4.90	85.20
³ 65 yo	28,735,000		22.50	34,770,000	29.60	7.10	121.00

Figures from the central bureaus of statistics from three nations, showing the different expected effects of aging.
Whereas the Netherlands will have an almost unchanged absolute amount of people in the ages 0-65, with the biggest decrease of -4.07% per category in the main workforce of 25-44 years old, the amount of elderly will increase with nearly 50%.
The United States will see an absolute increase in population overall, but lowest in the category 25-44 years, which will increase by 7.73%, in sharp contrast to the amount of elderly, which will increase by 104.2%. Instead of 35 million elderly, there are over 70 million elderly expected by 2030.
As for Japan, the increase of elderly is not so high compared to the other countries, with only 21%, however, the other age categories are declining, most notably children by 22.5%.
Main questions to be asked as a government include where will these people live and who will take care of them as their health declines?

Earthquake

It's been a while. As all of such earthquakes are described, before this one some smaller ones occurred, leading up to the bigger one. No problems whatsoever, except the elevator stopping. Currently anticipating aftershocks.

I was just cycling home, later than usual, in the dark, with a new 100 yen shop light. Pheasants were crying out in the agricultural field next to me, which was extremely uncommon. All of them at once, as if they were in a great panic. However, a truck wanted to pass me in the dark, so I paid it no mind, and turned a corner. They had stopped crying. The houses next to me however, started to rattle. Extremely loud. Only then did I notice the earthquake. It was so intense I decided it was better to stop cycling. Past the houses, on the opposite side of the road where the power lines weren't swinging and dancing.

It was only shindou 4 in Tsukuba. Shindou 4 is described as "People outside can notice the tremor" Today I learned it means "Nearly fall off bicycle even after stopping". After a minute of moving up and down from primary waves, the secondary waves came. Distant city lights remained on, so I figured it was best to continue homewards and see what was up. Only 3 things had toppled over from a shelf. 10 out of 12 free access tv channels are showing tsunami warnings.

JMA posted a tsunami warning:

***********About Tsunami Forecast************ Tsunami height is expected to be up to 2 meters. Caution advised. Tsunami height is expected to be about 0.5 meters. Attention advised. ******* Earthquake Information ********  Occurred at  17:18 JST 07 Dec 2012  Region name  SANRIKU OKI  Latitude 37.8N  Longitude 144.2E  Depth  about 10 km  Magnitude  7.3

NHK TV channel says 'people must evacuate' in those areas, in different languages, repeating every 3 minutes. I'm guessing all tsunami by now have already reached the shore. Several towns are reporting observed tsunami heights. Some flights are delayed due to inspection of the runway. There are no real issues. All that is left is to hope this isn't followed by a magnitude 9 earthquake in three days...

Japanese disaster book

Here are some images from an interesting Japanese disaster book, showing historic drawings of a catfish, often believed to live underground causing earthquakes, as well as the 1923 great Tokyo fire (following an earthquake); and the geophysical condition of the Kanto area. This is a great publication especially if you can understand Japanese, and even if not, most images speak for themselves. Local disaster history can play an important role in maintaining awareness of possible disasters.

The book was part of an exhibition on 80 years of disaster history at the Katsushika City Museum last month:

区制施行80周年記念特別展「東京低地災害史」

2011年3月11日に発生した東日本大震災は、自然と人間の関わり方を根底からくつがえす出来事でした。
1年半余を経過した今も、被災地の復興は進まず、多くの方々が自宅に帰れない、以前の仕事に就くことができない等、苦しい状態が続いています。
特に、福島第一原発は、廃炉まで何十年もの時間が必要とされ、周辺の帰宅困難及び居住制限区域の方々が、以前の生活を取り戻すには、多くの困難が予想されます。

この展示では17世紀以降、東京低地が立地する関東平野における歴史災害の検証を試みました。多くの災害は避けては通れないものですが、先人は、自然と共生しながらも、発生した諸災害と立ち向かい、復興をとげてきました。
残された史料から、災害の教訓を少しでも未来に継承し、改めて自然と向かい合う契機になれば幸いです。

Autotranslate:
Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred on March 11, 2011, was an event that radically subvert natural and human involvement. 
Even now more than one and a half years have passed, not proceed reconstruction of the affected areas, and you can not take many people are not able to return home, on earlier work, the state continues to be painful. 
In particular, the time required for decades until decommissioning, people of restricted areas and residential difficulty returning home surrounding, to regain previous life, nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi, many difficulties are to be expected. Since the 17th century, this exhibition we have tried to verify the historical disaster in Tokyo Kanto Plain lowland are located. Although most disaster that can not pass is avoided, but in harmony with nature, and confront various disasters that have occurred, predecessors, has undergone a revival. From historical records that are left to inherit the future of disaster a little lesson, I hope it will be an opportunity to once again face to face with nature.