The advisory will be lifted today anyway.
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2...elopments.html

Haha. I think it's a bit overblown, I haven't seen any shortages or bare shelves in my part of Tokyo at least. The only people who've spoken to me about the alert are friends who are new to Japan, everyone else has been fairly unphased...

This photo was taken yesterday and is typical for the supermarkets around Shirokane Takanawa station.

It’s the shelves that sell rice. Rice is still available, but only in bags containing 1kg or less.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...07dccee8a.jpeg

So go up the road to Akabanebashi or further west towards Meguro. Nothing but fully stocked supermarkets as far as the eye can see. I was in the supermarket near Meguro station yesterday afternoon getting some basics to replenish the fridge and it was as full of everything and daily produced ready to eat stuff as ever.

Really, I have not seen any shops with even a hint of less stocked shelfs than usual. Even rice is in normal supply.

Apart from the annoyance of the Shinkansen running 6 minutes late (insufferable) I have really not seen any indication that this warning has been anything but a random blip on people's radar.

In Osaka/Kobe area. My wife went shopping yesterday and all rice was sold out, apparently due to the warning. Certainly unusual to have no rice in the supermarket.

And Kanto is the region supposed to be more at risk from the Nankai Trough.....

I thought the rice shortage was due to low yield and stockpile being low? https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/1...racked%20grain I saw similar stories at the end of July so perhaps residents were already buying a bit of extra rice until this year's crop comes in and adding another bag or two in case of emergency/typhoons?

Also, yes, the news stories sometimes stated stock is low due to low yield and the tourists are eating more rice. It is probably true tourists in 2023 are eating more rice compared to 2020-2022, but tourism numbers haven't increased that significantly over 2019 when comparing by month https://statistics.jnto.go.jp/en/gra...rs--transition and likely less than 2019 for the 2023's rice supply months. I categorize that conclusion to be a bit more hand waving unless some further details are presented like all the visitors only eat at untimed unlimited onigiri buffets or something like that.

There might be a bit of 3/11 memories. I was watching NHK's "3/11 — The Tsunami: The First 3 Days" and my smart watch heart rate record definitely correlates (CA earthquake memories). The shaking is one thing but recalling the the disruption and aftershocks is another. Imagine how parents/caretakers might have felt walking home from work for what is normally a 45 minute train commute while power and much communication was down. I understand why some would want to stock up a bit on feminine goods, check battery levels, and replace expired emergency supplies as those are some actions within our control while the earthquake isn't. Also a bit of experience on how being out of certain creature comforts is annoying when staying at home for extended periods with intermittent or no power. Some people probably stocked up on Strong Zero. The milder tremors and power outages (wildfire precaution, larger storms, and power company not maintaining/upgrading things well) usually remind me to check on one part or another of my disaster preparedness gear & procedures.

There is generally little rice remaining from last years crop as noted above by Freecia. Seems that the folks at the Agriculture ministry have decided to mix rice again , which causes panic buying from a subset of the general population. Very few on here would remember the debacle from 90's. Also , and despite the price , the higher quality rice has been sold off. What remains is lower quality which is often used for sembei etc. which they are now mixing. Don't worry though , the rice situation will right itself in October or so.

My local supermarket was out of blue cheese today.
Time to leave the country.

I just stocked up on champagne, you have to have liquids for a few days in case of a major earthquake......

I do wonder if the locals are perhaps TOO cavalier in their attitude. After all, this is supposed to be a once every 100-150 years mega quake (if it happens). That's not something the vast majority of Japanese people have lived through.

By now the warning has been lifted, and we can allow ourselves to joke a bit more.

But in the end, we have seen quite big earthquakes and seen the impact of them. It depends a lot on where you live, but in central Tokyo in a reasonably modern building, the worry is probably not too great. But also, you can't walk around worrying about the risk of these events constantly, you'd go nuts. Japan is split over three continental plates, we get a lot of earthquakes.

Seems there was another cat 4 tremor in Kanazawa prefecture, maybe we will get the Nankai warning back?

Thought I felt something last evening.

Neither Tokyo (Kanto) or the Osaka area are at risk for the Nankai Trough earthquake and/or tsunami. It would mainly affect coastal south east Kyushu, southern coastal Shikoku, and coastal Kii Peninsula (mainly Wakayama and Mie prefectures). It could also potentially affect Nagoya and the Shizouka area, but no tsunami wave would probably reach around to Tokyo Bay (though with a non-Nankai Trough earthquake, that'd be a different situation...) You can see a map and article about it in English here: https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15383066

(and by the way, that mega-quake warning actually ended today)

The lack of rice and/or bare supermarket shelves in Tokyo, Osaka, or anywhere other than the areas listed above is either due to the limited stock of rice (particularly since its the end of season) or if it is a supermarket in a foreign tourist area, especially if near where someone would be spending their final night in Japan, because its become a bit common for people to buy a few kilos of rice to take home to their countries since imported Japanese rice is way more expensive abroad than inside Japan.

Also, Tokyo is currently being hit with a typhoon, and this was forecast several days ago and hyped up on the news as a massive event, with hundreds of flights and even the Shinkansen cancelled in advance of today, so people have probably been freaking out due to the over-dramatic headlines and have stocked up on just about everything beyond necessary.