A shocking earthquake occurred in Central Japan, November 22nd, 2014;devastating homes and injuring dozens of people. In a remote mountainous area of Nagano prefecture the earthquake was a magnitude of 6.8. One of the hardest areas hit was Skiing village of Hakuba, where around seven housing or storage units collapsed. In central Japan many highways were warped and many bridges and railroads destroyed. Rescue workers were sent out to find people trapped, officials said the mission was completed.

Natural disasters are unfortunate and they kill and injure many people. I don’t know why earthquakes are more predominant in certain areas of the world, like asia but there most be some way to lessen the chances of a natural disaster from happening. I know Japan has a lot of earthquakes, the government in countries that have a lot of earthquakes and natural disasters should come up with ways to decrease natural disasters. Some ways would be pollution control in the wake of devastating earthquakes as well as government mandated building codes that are more strict in earthquake zones.

After the earthquake the government did a poor job supporting the citizens. Many were left starving and with no shelter. The government did support them in the end, but it took a very long time and to me that is very selfish of the government. It seemed that the Japanese government cared more about their image as a tourist destination than the safety of their own citizens.  This point was made here in an article that describes how a ski resort wanted to control the message about damage.

The government should have responded right away and helped their society. The Japanese government needs to have more empathy for their peoples well being.  Too many governments care more about money than people. Central Japan has recovered and now their economy is going back up, but these natural disasters happen often, which makes it hard for their economy to stay stable.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/22/world/asia/japan-earthquake/