Japan has a strong image of a country hit by all sorts of natural disasters. Earthquakes, typhoos, landslides, floods, even tsunamis. No wonder that property owners are required to sign up for a fire insurance, still earthquake or flood insurance is just a recommended extra option.
As a property owner you must be aware of the natural disaster damage risks, but that's not a call for a panic. Any country has hazardous areas, but there are safe areas, too! Here are some ways to minimalize the risks of possible natural disaster damage when choosing a property to invest in.
To start with, Japanese local authorities provide the community with updated hazard maps, so you can check if the property you want to purchase is safe or you'd better reconsider your choice. Detailed information can be obtained from the real estate agent when you already picked up some properties to choose from. Sometimes the initial property portfolio may mention damage from landslide or flood, so that would be a red flag, too.
For instance, the map you can see on the left is the flood hazard map distributed by the Tokyo metropolitan authorities. As you may see, such popular residential areas as Edogawa and Sumida wards are extremely hazardous compared to Setagaya or Nakano wards being totally safe according to the map.
The local authorities share tsunami, earthquake and landslide hazard maps too, so you are always kept updated no matter if you are a resident or not.
Bigger cities often provide information in English, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese languages which is really helpful too.
Another trustworthy sippet of knowledge you might hear only from the local residents is doing some research on the neighborhood history. Surprisingly, areas with really old shrines and temples preserved at the same spot as centuries ago are thought to be a considerably safe seismic zones. A good example is the whole city of Kyoto: the area has a lot of historical sights preserved at their initial location, and the region has no massive earthquake records for centuries!
A smart thing you might learn from the locals is checking the toponyms around the area you are interested in. It's a widely known fact, that land namings often warn us about natural disasters happened in the past. Most of such warning toponyms are made up on the homonyphic basis. That means that the initial red flag for the natural disaster damage is hidden by the character with the similar prononciation. For example, toponyms having a 女 (”onna” / female) character in them might have a sad record of tsunami damage. Why? The similarly pronounced word 男波 (”ona”) can be literally translated as raging waves. Let's look into some real case. Osaka`s buzzling Umeda area is famous for flood hazard. You might be surprised, but its initial character 梅 ("ume"/ plum) sounds similar to the verb "埋め立てる" ("umetateru") which means to fill up the land. Umeda area really resembles a bowl by its structure, so in this case the beautiful toponym might be a real red flag even in the era of solid architecture and early disaster warnings.
Even if you can't read in Japanese, let's check another example. If there's "kama" in your land name, high chances that the area once suffered a severe tsunami damage, because the prononciation is similar to the one for the verb "to bite off". In the Tohoku region, heavily affected by the Great Earthquake of 2011, among the areas extremely damaged by the tsunami with land literally bitten off by the sea we can find Kamaishi, Kamaya, Kamada, Kamamae and so on. Even the famous city of Kamakura with its luxurious detatched houses and crowded beaches has a sad record of a 6-8 m tsunami wave crashing the coastal area during the Great Kanto Earthquake of the 1923.
Another way of danger marking is based on the comparison. That means that toponyms featuring such characters as 龍/竜 (dragon) are implying that there might be a dangerous river close by.
This may be not the best example, though. If you have an annual flood record in the area, you would know that without doing a toponym research.
Sure, that doesn't mean that all of the toponyms with such characters are hazardous areas so always check the hazard maps to confirm the safety. Some resources state, that "monkey" character (”saru”) may be a warning sign for landslides. Still, there are toponyms having a "monkey" character in them and being totally safe. A good exaple is Sarugakucho neighborhood located in Chiyoda ward, Tokyo. Long ago a famous actor resided there, so the whole neighborhood was named according to the traditional drama genre "sarugaku" which he mastered.
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