Japan holds annual disaster response drill

About 1.6 million people across Japan took part in an annual emergency drill on Tuesday, September 1, with schoolchildren taking cover under desks and top officials meeting in response to a mock natural disaster. Rescue operations and emergency medical exercises were carried out to simulate an emergency response to a strong 7.3 magnitude quake rocking Tokyo in the early morning. The nationwide drill is held annually on September 1, known in Japan as Disaster Prevention Day, which comes on the anniversary of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake that killed more than 100,000 people and leveled Tokyo. The government has stepped up its disaster response since the devastating 2011 earthquake that triggered a deadly tsunami that sent reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant into meltdown.

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