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Issei Kato / Reuters
Onlookers get a panoramic view of the city of Tokyo from the first observatory deck during a media preview of the Tokyo Sky Tree tower this week. Some Japanese lawmakers have proposed constructing a "backup city" that could take on the capital's functions in the event of a catastrophe.
It sounds like a story ripped from the parody-filled pages of The Onion, but some Japanese lawmakers really do want to build a "backup city" that would take over the functions of Tokyo, including tourism, in the event of a catastrophe.
The idea was floated last month at a Tokyo luncheon, with a follow-up in The Telegraph last week. "The idea of being able to have a backup, a spare battery for the functions of the nation ... isn't this really a good idea?" Hajime Ishii, a parliamentarian representing the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, was quoted as saying.
Support for creating an urban Plan B has grown in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in March and led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis. "Preparations are already under way at various levels to find ways of mitigating possible far-reaching consequences of a much-expected earthquake striking Tokyo," the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan said.
The lawmakers' plan calls for building an urban center known as IRTBBC (Integrated Resort, Tourism, Business and Backup City) or NEMIC (National Emergency Management International City) on the 1,236-acre site currently occupied by Osaka International Airport at Itami. Today, Itami is used only as a secondary hub for domestic flights, operating in the shadow of the newer Kansai airport.
The new city would take on all the functions of the capital city in the event of an emergency. It would boast office complexes, resort facilities, parks and even casinos. The city's centerpiece would be a tower that would rank among the tallest in the world, coming in at just over 650 meters (2,133 feet). It'd be built to house 50,000 residents and accommodate a workday population of around 200,000 people from the Osaka region, The Telegraph reported.
If the plan goes forward, it would rank among history's most ambitious backup plans. The backers haven't calculated the cost of building the city. For now, Ishii and his fellow lawmakers — including the Democratic Party's Banri Kaieda, Shizuka Kamei of the People's New Party and Ichiro Aisawa of the Liberal Democrats — are merely seeking 14 million yen ($180,000) for a feasibility study.
So far, the reaction has been mixed: Osaka's governor, Toru Hashimoto, has been quoted as saying that his region is willing to accept the capital backup role, while Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara has voiced opposition. And he may not be the only one: It just seems to me that most emergency-management officials, if not most politicians, would prefer to fortify what they have rather than building a whole new complex someplace else. Of course, I could be wrong about that.
More about Japan's future:
- Special report: "After the Wave"
- Japan marks six months since quake, tsunami
- Japan reactor restrarts; new glitch hits Fukushima
- Cosmic Log archive on Japan
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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Wouldn't you think that returning Fukushima and surrounding cities to normal would be a higher priority than building an entire new city for an event that may never occur for another 10,000 years, bonsai!
hope those 50,000 people dont have to evacuate that tall a$$ building in the event of an emergency
First, Tokyo-2...
AND THEN TOKYO-3.
(cue 'Cruel Angel Thesis' in background)
Then get squished by an Evangelion fighting a giant space monster.
Now, back to the topic at hand, can't they just fix up another city, make it all nice and shiny, and when crap hits the fan (which it will), run there?
I'm just glad there's no 2nd impact of any sort.
Check out "Agenda 21". The plan is to stack people in high rise apartment buildings after confiscating their private property. In China, many "ghost cities" have already been built. Satellite photos show these cities with no one living there - yet.
"Sustainable development" is another name for Agenda 21, and many of our towns and cities are being persuaded they are the wave of the future.
How small Americans think these days. We can't even agree on a plan to fix roads or build a bridge without 20 years of ideological debate and even then it doesn't get done. All the while China is kicking our collective asses.
Is New Orleans even completely repaired after Katrina? How long ago was that?
They could use it as the Set for Future Monster Flicks
I say build it because you can't always depend on Mothra to save Tokyo when Godzilla rampages.
hey will the new city have hookers, drugs, and crime. just like most cities. i hope so.
Hmmmmmmmmm. They still haven't figured out how to contain the Fukushima reactors, I've read Tokyo's already radioactively contaminated by the fallout (not to mention all the rest of us) and all they can think about in their time of BigTimeDenial is how to build a backup tokyo??? More crazy to add to the mounting crazies of people on the planet. If anything, how about "building" up a measure of respect for what there already is and the people in our lives?!!! Give the monkey mind (and hands) a rest.
grant-4208811: Tokyo is not "radioactively contaminated by the fallout."
Based on their current economy and debt, I'm not sure they can afford the one Tokyo they already have!
After seeing what they have done in and around Fukushima in 7-8 months and other tasks they have taken on inlcuding Russia and the U.S. (win or lose) I ain't discounting their determination.
How about a backup family, husband, wife, children, home, parents just in case the one you have gets obliterated in the next whatever calamity..... Makes sense to me..... BWA, ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,haaaa... stupid.
They already have a backup city. It is called Omiya (or Saitama city). Plenty of backup government buildings and land already set up. I don't know why they are looking at Osaka, just trying to find a use for the old airport land I guess. Itami has actually easier access to downtown Osaka and Kyoto, and the shinkansen. The greater Osaka airport in the bay is sinking, but I guess they need something to build on. With a declining population you would think they could buy out land around Itami and make that work. Oh well.
Japan's complaints of "Economic malaise" on USA TODAY mobile for 11/2/2011, this on MSN for 11/2/2011, the two articles reprehensibly opposite one another. It simply will not be tenable, Japan's idea of "Building-out of economic despair" as did the USA. The American template is the desired model worldwide, yet America is unique and incopyable; inconvertible and unrecostructable. Japan robs the U.S of its unique History and individuality and threatens the Earth while doing so relative to the subject of this article.
Would anyone feel safe in such a tower housing 200,000 people? Again, what about the earth moving underneath such a building? What about the safe issues once it is built? What about the cost overruns? What taxes would be needed to pay for it? Would the people really support such a massive project? This list could go on and on. The Japanese are still trying to pay for the last earthquake how are they going to pay for the next one? The earth is just to unsettled in that region of the world.
Why do you even ask the question. If the Japanese want to build a city why is it our business ?
Great Idea! To be followed by the Japanese cloning all their officials and necessary personnel and freezing them to be thawed when necessary. They can keep a supply of frozen sushi to feed them, too.
They going to call it Fakyo?
Or maybe Phonyo?
The US should Plan and build a Backup Congress in case this one is overrun by the People and Buried. The one we have now is not working out.
We all ready have a back up city for Washington, Detroit !