Japan holds nationwide disaster drills assuming major quakes

Annual disaster drills were held across Japan on Saturday, with the central government-led exercise based on a scenario that a massive earthquake originating in the Nankai Trough in the Pacific had rocked wide areas in central and western Japan.Local governments also conducted their own drills assuming major quakes and tsunami in a bid to improve preparedness for the natural disasters that often strike the island nation.The nationwide exercises are held every Sept. 1, or Disaster Prevention Day, which marks the anniversary of a magnitude 7.9 temblor that devastated Tokyo and its vicinity in…READ FULL ARTICLE