TltE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF S. E. JAPAN \'f\ 



from different parts of the world, started to reconstruct tlieir habitations. 

 We may now exjiect tliat it will not take so long a time for the 

 complete rehabilitation of the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama with, 

 anioiig other improvements, more secm-ity against earthquake and fire, 

 though the authorities of the Metropolitan Eeconstruction Board seem 

 to feel anxious about overcoming n.iany ditficulties which they must 

 encounter. 



The catastrophe was, on the other hand, very instructive to the 

 peo[)le who had formerly refused to believe the seismologists' words 

 of advice. In the summer session of the luiperial Diet in 1924, 

 each House proposed and passed a bill for the extension and 

 encouragement of earthquake investigations, and the government has 

 recently provided the means for enlarging the existing meteorological 

 observatories in this connection, and for establishing, instead of the 

 hitherto existing Imperial Earthquake Investigation Committee, the 

 Imperial Earthquake Investigation Council and the Earthquake Re- 

 search Institute of Tokyo Imperial University. The latter will, when 

 completed, have 11 investigators freed from the necessity of giving 

 university lectures — perhaps one of the best means of responding to the 

 sym])athy given us l)y different nations. 



November 1925. 



Apxjendioc I, 

 The Seismic Zones in Japan, 



1- Important problems in earthquake countries. In countries 

 subject to earthquakes, the seismic problems which are of most im- 

 portance and interest are probably those relating to the prediction of 

 shocks and to earthquake-proof construction. In Japan, the latter of 

 these problems has been in some measure solved by various architects 

 and civil engineers, who liave aeliieved some success in the study of 

 constructhig buildings, bridges, etc. On the other hand, the progress 



