A Cabinet Office survey conducted at the end of 2009 has revealed that 24 per cent of the respondents were not prepared for a powerful earthquake, compared to 13.5 per cent in similar survey in 2007.
"In 2007, public awareness about disaster prevention was heightened because of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake and the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake that happened that year, but such awareness is likely to have faded since then" said an official at the Cabinet Office.