Japan has figured out how to build resilient housing in disaster-prone places — here's what the US can learn

• Japan has taken steps to make its buildings more resilient to seismic activity.
• Strategic planning, updating building codes, and a culture of preparedness have driven progress.
• Japan's approach could offer lessons for the US, where many communities are vulnerable to disasters.

Prone to major earthquakes that trigger fires and tsunamis, Japan has become a world leader in building disaster-resilient communities.

Three experts in public policy and urban development told Business Insider that, over many decades, strategic planning, a culture of disaster preparedness, and regularly updated building codes have helped Japan produce neighborhoods and cities that can better withstand seismic shocks and other disasters.

While Japan experiences more regular and severe seismic activity than most of the US, the country's approach to disaster resilience could offer a model for American communities prone to major fires, floods, earthquakes, and other destructive events, especially as they increase in frequency.

"Each disaster has served as a catalyst for deeper reflection and adaptation, and this continuous cycle of learning and adjusting is one key reason why Japan has been so proactive in addressing disaster risk," Christian Dimmer, an associate professor of urban studies at Waseda University in Tokyo, told Business Insider.

After major seismic events, Japan updates its national building codes based on what it learned from the earthquakes. Older buildings quickly become non-compliant and less attractive to renters and buyers, so they're often torn down and replaced with safer modern buildings. In America, the average age of a demolished building is 67 years, while in Japan, it's 32, per Jiro Yoshida, a business professor at Pennsylvania State University. This isn't just a result of building code reform: Japan lost a significant portion of its homes during World War II, and those that were rapidly built to replace them were often poor quality.

"Japan has gradually cranked up the expectations on housing," Daniel Aldrich, professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University, told BI. "So a house built in the 2020s is much safer than one built in the early 1990s, than one built in the '70s, than one built in the '50s."

Strategic land-use planning can reduce deaths and destruction

New construction is both built to be more disaster-resistant and sometimes used to protect older, more vulnerable buildings. In one such case, a 15-building concrete Tokyo apartment complex, complete with steel shutters and a sprinkler system, was erected in a way that strategically protected a neighborhood of mostly wooden homes, creating a 1.2-kilometer-long firewall.

Additionally, Japan has developed various land-use strategies to reduce casualties and damage from earthquakes, fires, and other disasters. Officials identify neighborhoods and regions that are particularly vulnerable and create firebreaks around rivers, railroads, and roadways to prevent fires from jumping from one area to another, Dimmer said. Cities have created new greenspaces, including pocket parks featuring emergency water stores and rations, widened some of their extremely narrow streets, and phased out dead-end streets.

"What stands out in Japan's approach is the institutionalized mechanism of learning from disasters and translating those lessons into concrete, actionable policies," Dimmer said.

After the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which also triggered massive fires and a major tsunami that devastated Tokyo and Yokohama, the country learned that green spaces are critical fire breaks and to act as evacuation zones, Dimmer said.

In the wake of Japan's 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident, the country invested in coastal infrastructure, including massive seawalls, and relocated residents out of particularly vulnerable areas.

"There are efforts to bring people closer to the city centers, reduce sprawl, and then also if you have built in a place that you shouldn't have built or is deemed unsafe, then there are subsidies to help you move," said Miho Mazereeuw, an associate professor of architecture and director of the Urban Risk Lab at MIT who's writing a book entitled "Design Before Disaster: Japan's Culture of Preparedness."

A 'culture of preparedness' braces residents

In Japan, schoolchildren are required to participate in regular earthquake, fire, typhoon, and other disaster preparedness drills. They study evacuation routes and learn how to take cover depending on the emergency. They also memorize a famous phrase: "Don't push, don't run, don't speak, and don't go back." But it's not just kids who are trained — residents of all ages are educated in disaster response. And, in 2015, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government produced a post-disaster survival manual, the Bosai book.

"There is this culture of preparedness that's been ingrained in every level of society, from what children are taught in schools, to organizations that are community-level," said Mazereeuw. Communities are asked "to really think through both the city design and then also how the community members interact with each other, support each other through these kinds of events."

Dimmer said this culture is based on the understanding that building a more disaster-resilient society requires collective action and major investments.

"Adequate financial resources, building civic structures, and empowering individuals to exercise foresight are crucial," Dimmer added. "Equally important, however, is addressing the underlying cultural mindset that views these efforts as essential for the greater good, rather than seeing them as burdensome or unnecessary."

Building more resilient structures can keep people safe

Government officials in Japan have worked to keep people safe from disasters like tsunamis and volcanoes by consistently pushing construction firms to improve resiliency. And so far, it's been working.

When a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in the central prefecture of Ishikawa, Japan, in January 2024, at least 57 people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed. Robert Geller, professor emeritus of seismology at the University of Tokyo, told CNN that modern buildings fared better than older houses.

When a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Kahramanmaras, Turkey in February 2023, at least 230,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, and more than 4,800 people died. Damage from earthquakes can vary significantly depending on where they occur, which makes it difficult to compare two events. However, experts told BI that Japan's resiliency measures have helped the country reduce building damage and save lives.

To be sure, Japan's approach to disasters isn't foolproof. Big earthquakes in recent decades have damaged or destroyed many buildings and had high death tolls. There are also high environmental costs of tearing down older structures and rebuilding as much as Japan does, such as creating significant carbon emissions and waste that can be detrimental to the environment. There are also cultural costs. Many older, often wooden buildings in Japan have been demolished in order to rebuild more disaster-resilient structures.

"Of course, I believe in human safety being the most important thing, but I lament a bit the loss of many more traditional homes," Mazereeuw said, adding that she hopes buildings can begin to be retrofitted more frequently rather than torn down.

Aldrich said the US may struggle with this strategy without first reforming its "patchwork" building codes that are different across cities and states. In comparison, he said Japan's national government has made changes to building codes that apply to the entire country, a model that he said the US should take some lessons from.

"The US should work to create updated federal standards for designing built structures — both residential and commercial — that can withstand floods and fires," he said.