TOKYO Most Japanese know the drill keep a backpack near the door, filled with bottled water, dried or canned food, a first-aid kit, cash, clothes, a radio, a torch and lots of spare batteries.

In disaster-prone Japan — regularly shaken by earthquakes, dotted with more than 100 volcanoes and swept by typhoons every year — living with the threat of death has always been a part of life.

The memory of past catastrophes, and the threat of the ones that are sure to come, has made the wealthy island-nation's 128 million people and their government better prepared for disaster than most other countries.

Certainly most Japanese have no illusions about the limits to preparing for a mega-disaster such as the massive quake that, seismic experts say, is decades overdue in Tokyo, ominously referred to as “The Big One”. But zealous safety preparations, regular drills and, crucially, the country's wealth, which allows for expensive quake-proofing of buildings and infrastructure, have saved thousands of lives in recent decades, experts say.

“In the past Japan used to be just like today's Southeast Asian countries when disaster struck,” said Toshitaka Katada, a professor for Gunma University's Disaster Social Engineering Laboratory.

“Thousands of people died every year until 50 years ago.” Since a typhoon in 1959 killed more than 5,000 people, death tolls have fallen into the hundreds or dozens during disasters — with the exception of the 1995 Kobe earthquake which killed more then 6,400 people — he said.

“This is because the government has made protecting its citizens from disaster a state responsibility,” he said, in part by building infrastructure such as river dykes and retaining walls against floods and landslides.

“Local administrative bodies are trained to quickly issue alerts and evacuation orders and distribute food and blankets at shelters.” About 795,000 people, including the prime minister, took part in the main annual quake drill on September 1, the day the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake struck and killed more than 140,000 in Tokyo, many in fires that swept the city.

People know they should try to hide under a solid table to guard against falling objects, to quickly turn off the gas mains, and to keep a door ajar lest a tremor jams it shut and traps them inside a crumbling house.

Common advice is to keep a spare pair of shoes under the bed, and a bicycle outside, to navigate rooms and roads littered with broken glass and debris.

Many people subscribe to mobile phone quake alerts, school children have padded and flame retardant headwear under their desks, and people can prepare for the real thing in a high-tech earthquake simulator.

Earthquake kits are sold in department stores, and people are urged to supplement them with key personal items — spare eyeglasses and special medications, or extra nappies and food for the baby.

Families are told to work out emergency meeting spots and times for the very worst cases — for example, if many buildings have collapsed and are on fire, and mobile phone systems have broken down.

Many more lives are saved when disaster strikes in Japan than in many other nations simply because it is a wealthier country.

Nuclear power plants and bullet trains are designed to automatically shut down when the earth rumbles, and many buildings have been quake-proofed with steel and Ferro-concrete at great cost in recent decades.

When Samoa was hit by a tsunami of up to 7.5 metres (25 feet) on Tuesday, triggered by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake, Japan immediately issued alerts to fishing boats and closed large tsunami gates to protect ports.

“Japan has the most advanced early warning system in the world,” said Hiroshi Inoue of the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention. “But it's not perfect, especially for those near the epicentre.” Good governance and the rule of law are also seen as crucial.

A school or hospital is less likely to collapse if it is well built and has not been weakened because a corrupt official has used shoddy materials to siphon off money, as has happened in other countries in the past.

When a strong 6.4-magnitude quake hit central Shizuoka prefecture west of Tokyo on August 10, it damaged about 5,200 buildings, but few of them badly.

One woman was killed, eight people were seriously injured, and more than 100 suffered minor injuries — a quake casualty toll that is seen as relatively moderate in international comparisons.

The quake itself triggered another rush on disaster preparedness items, such as foldable plastic helmets and outdoor cooking kits, said Keiko Sasaki, a sales manager at a Tokyu Hands department store in Tokyo.—AFP