Tokyo: The Tokyo metropolitan government will give seismic circuit breakers to local residents in areas packed with aged wooden houses to cut the risk of fire in the event of a big earthquake.

In its upcoming fiscal 2023 draft budget, the metropolitan government will include 2 billion yen to distribute the device that automatically cuts off power when a major quake happens to some 320,000 households in the year starting in April.

Seismic breakers are priced around 5,000 yen per unit for types plugged into power outlets. They are designed to prevent fires caused by heaters and other equipment when power is restored after a quake-caused outage.

Eastern and southern parts of Tokyo’s densely populated 23 special wards are considered vulnerable to fires because they have many wooden buildings.

According to a metropolitan government estimate revised last year, a big quake in Tokyo could cause fires that burn up to some 120,000 buildings and kill some 2,500 people in the Japanese capital, mainly in Adachi, Edogawa and Ota wards with many wooden houses.

But the numbers can be lowered by nearly 90 pct if the share of buildings with seismic breakers rises to 50 pct from 8.3 pct in fiscal 2020 and local residents make initial firefighting responses properly, the metropolitan government says.

JIJI Press