Our mother nature is no doubt very angry - so is the saying going around. If she is not extremely unhappy, then why there is so much fury in her recent behavior? This is what a group of people, sure enough of the scale of anger that our known world is simply unable to hide, is saying. Others, on the other hand, are pointing fingers to our unfathomable greed that are causing so much harm to surrounding environment that mother earth has been forced to show her violent reaction. All such assumptions led to the conclusion that a great harm has already been done and we're now paying the price for that. Hence, the question that naturally comes to the mind of men is what are we exactly doing to our natural surroundings to upset the balance in a way to force planet earth to react in a way which until recently had been unknown to us?

This is also the question many in Japan started asking once again after a series of deadly typhoons hit the country within last one month causing widespread damage and destruction. The first big one was typhoon Faxai that left part of Tokyo's neighboring Chiba prefecture without electricity and water supply almost for a week. As people of cyclone hit Chiba gradually returned to their normal lives, then came a much bigger one, Hagibis, causing wider damages in much of eastern Japan. The death casualty so far exceeded 50 and the number is still counting. Strangely, the gust that hit Chiba was accompanied by an earthquake and also by a tornado that knocked down a number of houses injuring scores of people. As a result, many are now finding the legitimacy of nature's angry reaction as something difficult to ignore.

Japan had been badly hit twice in less than a month by typhoons powerful enough to dislodge in a massive scale what we take for granted as a normal life style. The powerful storm Hagibis forced country's meteorological agency to issue its highest emergency level 5 rain warning in Tokyo and 12 prefectures. Typhoon brought heavy rainfall over a wider area in eastern and central Honshu, resulting in new rainfall records in many places. Record rainfall also led to rivers overflow and burst banks and thus causing floods in residential districts in effected prefectures. Weather officials in Japan are saying that in some areas up to 40 percent of the yearly rainfall was recorded in only one day or two days. The heavy rainfall caused more than a hundred rivers to overflow.

By early Sunday Japan had already accelerated rescue efforts. Around 27,000 members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces had been dispatched to worst hit regions including Nagano Prefecture, where about 360 people were stranded on Sunday after a collapsed river embankment set free the flow of water that submerged large areas around the neighborhood. About 38,000 people in 17 prefectures had been evacuated by Monday noon and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a meeting of the disaster task force that his government will do utmost to support those affected by typhoon and its aftereffects.

Japan has not yet started calculating the extent of damages caused by typhoon Hagibis. However, some figures emerging from affected areas are giving clear indications of massive economic losses. Country's highly developed infrastructure too turned out to be not immune from the danger and in some cases had sustained serious damages. Ten rows of bullet trains parked at a railway yard in Nagano prefecture were inundated by muddy water. The trains made up of 120 carriages belong to West Japan Railway Company and manufacturing cost for 120 carriages is estimated to be more than 30 billion yen.

All such unexpected damages and consequences come as a stark reminder that it is now high time that we think seriously about the underlying causes behind such a monstrous response of nature to harmful human activities. Typhoons and cyclones hitting different parts of the world are becoming more deadly, while floods and other natural calamities becoming more damaging and frequent. How should we respond to that is an issue being debated for quite some time. For environment activists like Greta Thunberg the answer is quite simple. We need to change our lifestyle which until now has been based heavily on endless consumption. And our failure to do so will only see repeated calamities with more deadly blows coming from nature. However, changing lifestyle in reality is much more difficult than just saying about that. World economy has virtually become hostage to our endless greed and the modality is sustained by the gimmick under the disguise of pomp and glitter. Japan too is not immune from that despite country's repeated commitment underlying the need for a sustainable economy.

However, for Japan the disaster also brought about a silver lining from political standpoint. South Korean President Moon Jae has become the first foreign leader to send a message of sympathy and support over the devastation caused by typhoon Hagibis. In a message addressed to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Moon has expressed hope that people in disaster areas will be able to return to normal lives soon and offered his deep condolence for the victims.

The two countries are at odd since late June when Japan imposed trade restriction on some of country's export items shipped to South Korea. The prompt message of sympathy from the South Korean leader probably gives on indication of country's willingness to softening its hard-line position. How Japan going to respond now is a matter worth watching out in coming days.

(Tokyo, October 14, 2019)