Chris,

This is not so new to me because Roger Musson covered some part of this at AGU three years ago. I recall at the time there was some new information available that Roger was unaware of, so Don invited a seismologist from Japan to come over and he translated to Don what Don need to tell Roger. It turned out quite well for Roger that Don can speak fluent Japanese.

However, it is indeed a worrisome situation. Yet I don't understand why they are not buying earthquake insurance. It seems to me Japan does so much for earthquake preparedness that everyone should know the risk is enormous. Perhaps the insurance costs really are quite high, I don't know. But I do know they are not that high in California and certainly affordable for most people. After Hurricane Katrina people out here started thinking differently about expecting the government to bail them out and many are buying flood insurance and earthquake insurance as well.

Thanks for sharing Stein's lecture with us,

Petra