Japan: 10,000 Deaths if Big Quake Hits
Associated Press / Tue, Mar. 18, 2003
TOKYO - About 10,000 people would die and 250,000 homes would be destroyed if a massive earthquake were to strike central Japan, the government said Tuesday.
The estimates - announced in a government survey designed to promote disaster management and prevention - assumed a magnitude-8 temblor struck a densely populated region known as Tokai, said Cabinet Office spokesman Takashi Murata.
The area is home to Nagoya, Japan's fourth-largest city, and forms a major part of the country's industrial belt.