Learning the lessons of disaster.

Reprinted from Japan quarterly; 1996; v. 43, no. 1; p. 6-19

The Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake seemed like an omen foreshadowing the end of Japan's heyday as an economic superpower. It showed clearly that the cities which had acted as the engines for Japan's rapid economic growth are not only cramped and inconvenient but also extremely dangerous. The Hanshin area stretching between Osaka in Osaka Prefecture on the east and Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture on the west is known as a comfortable middle- to upper-class residential district. The city of Kobe was considered one of Japan's best models of municipal government. That even a widely admired metropolis should turn out to have basic fatal flaws and suffer such tremendous damage has had a powerful impact on city governments throughout the country