Experts warn Mount Fuji eruption could cripple Tokyo’s transport system in three hours
- Simulations show that even minute amounts of ash from an eruption would make it impossible for above-ground trains to run in the Japanese capital
- The volcano last erupted more than 300 years ago, but it occasionally goes through periods of activity that can trigger several hundred tremors a month
The panel, which is attached to the Cabinet Office, said simulations had shown that even minute amounts of ash from such an eruption would make it impossible for above-ground trains to run in Tokyo, 100km (60 miles) to the northeast, and weigh on power lines.
Several centimetres of ash would clog the filters at power plants. Visibility would diminish to zero.
An explosion on the scale of Mount Fuji’s last eruption could go on for two weeks, which the panel included in its calculations.
Mount Fuji last erupted more than 300 years ago, but it is active and occasionally goes through periods of activity that can produce several hundred tremors a month.
“Measures need to be taken both for an emergency response and also recovery over the longer term,” Toshitsugu Fujii, professor emeritus at Tokyo University and the head of the panel, wrote in a report published on Tuesday.
