You Can’t Be Too Careful… And This is Why… Oh No Not Another Fire
You Can’t Be Too Careful – Japan appears to be a very, very risk-averse society. When delivery drivers hop out of their vans they need to chock both sides of the wheels no matter how flat the road or how short the stop. People waving flags to guide traffic carefully through road works, or helping administer tolls, wear full PPE including hard hats.
Inflatable car park barriers can cause fewer injuries than hard poles, and a hand slap post on a petrol pump allows you to ground any residual electricity in your body before beginning fuelling.
The technical term for this is VSL, or the Value of a Statistical Life. How much additional engineering (hard or soft) should you have in society in order to reduce life loss on the roads and elsewhere?
And This Is Why – because Japan does actually have a track record in disasters.
Being a seismically-active country means that you do actually need to be prepared, and an earthquake can bring with it fire, tidal waves and extreme destruction. We were briefed on what to do if an earthquake happened while driving (“basically, look at what the locals are doing and copy them”) and hotel bedrooms always had a rechargeable torch by the bed. Working in Tokyo in 1988, Doris regularly saw the next door skyscraper swaying past as the buildings are constructed to flex with small quakes. All the coastal roads we drove down had Tsunami Evacuation routes shown, with the height above sea level clearly indicated so that you could see whether you were currently high enough. Evidence of preparation is everywhere.
Oh No Not Another Fire – As a result of a mixture of natural disasters and warfare, and with wood as the primary building tool (see also Hakodate) almost all significant Cultural Temples Castles and Wotsits list three dates – the date they were first built, the date they first burned down, and the date they most recently burned down. As a result of this, January 26th has been designated Fire Prevention Day for Cultural Properties.
PS. Disconcertingly, we spotted this in our bedroom in Fukuoka. With 35 floors, the windows are sealed but outside is a little fenced shelf from below the low windowsill down to floor level. Next to the telly is a tiny Alice-in-Wonderland door, maybe 50cm tall. Bend down and read the sign…
The rule for abandoning a boat is “only ever step up into the life raft” and the test for crawling through this door will be “are you desperate enough yet?”.