Mortality risk for tropical cyclones in two countries with similar exposure: Japan and the Philippines
Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Japan is US$ 31,267 compared to US$ 5,137 in the Philippines, and Japan has a human development index of 0.953 compared to 0.771 in the Philippines (UNDP, 2007).
Japan also has about 1.4 times as many people exposed to tropical cyclones than the Philippines. However, if affected by a cyclone of the same magnitude, mortality in the Philippines would be 17 times higher than that in Japan.