Japan's Disaster Prevention Minister said, "We need to prepare for attacks on other countries taking advantage of disasters."

With Japan's Disaster Prevention Agency launched on the 2nd, the minister in charge mentioned the possibility of an attack by another country taking advantage of a disaster, attracting attention.

According to the Sankei Shimbun on the 4th, Disaster Prevention Minister Koshi Hosono, the Minister in charge of the Disaster Prevention Agency, said at a press conference inaugurating the Agency on the 2nd that "It will be a battle for the fate of the nation" in response to large-scale disasters such as the Great Nankai Trench Earthquake, and that if the response is wrong, "we cannot avoid collapse as a nation."

At the same time, based on the experience of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he mentioned the possibility that Japan, weakened by the disaster, could be attacked by other countries.

Disaster Prevention Minister Hosono said that while the Self-Defense Forces were fully mobilized to deal with the tsunami and the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident at the time, he thought, "If a similar incident occurs in Japan at this time, will we be able to respond?"

Regarding the situation at the time, he added, "There was sympathy for Japan. There was an atmosphere in the world that attacking a weakened Japan like this was simply impossible."

However, he pointed out that "the world has changed significantly" and that now "there is a possibility of an attack."

This is interpreted to mean that, unlike 15 years ago, the international situation has changed and there are countries that will attack Japan when it faces a disaster.

However, Disaster Prevention Minister Hosono did not mention any countries that may have such a possibility.

Disaster Prevention Minister Hosono served as an aide to the Prime Minister in Naoto's cabinet under the Democratic Party administration during the Great East Japan Earthquake.

He also said that there is a need to prepare for situations such as cyber attacks occurring simultaneously with disasters, and that he spoke with Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi about this issue.

He added, “We recognize that this is a very serious task.”

The Japan Emergency Management Agency was launched to minimize damage from natural disasters such as earthquakes and oversee the industrialization of disaster prevention technology.

The existing disaster prevention department of the Cabinet Office has been upgraded, and the head is the Prime Minister.

Previously, there was an uproar when Minister of Disaster Prevention Hosono announced in advance that he would announce an 'emergency request to the public' upon the launch of the organization.

As the contents of the public emergency request that he released in advance became known as 'to prepare in advance at least three days' worth, preferably one week's worth of water, food, emergency toilets, etc.', concerns spread both inside and outside Japan that there was a possibility of war breaking out.

In response, Disaster Prevention Minister Hosono explained at a press conference on the 30th of last month that his intention was to urge people to prepare for large-scale disasters that are expected to occur in the future, saying, "Some people are saying that there is information predicting war or disaster, but that is not the case."