Disaster Preparedness Week begins today. The Cabinet approved designating the week that includes Disaster Prevention Day on September 1 (August 30–September 5) in 1982, so it has already been 30 years. As you know, Disaster Prevention Day marks the Great Kanto Earthquake, but the lesson of the Ise Bay Typhoon on September 26, 1959 — the year before the day was established — which caused the worst postwar typhoon damage, is also remembered. This weekend too, Typhoon No. 15 may bring rough weather to eastern and western Japan. It is the last weekend of summer vacation — please take care.
Yesterday at Palaceside Building, employees held a tasting of emergency rations. We compared and evaluated the food currently stockpiled in the building with newly proposed products from a vendor. The vendor's pitch this time was "warm, delicious meals precisely because it is an emergency." Prof. Kazuko Okada, professor emeritus at Konan Women's University — author of books such as "Food Under Disaster: Proposals from Kobe" (NHK Publishing) and "Disaster Food for Working People: Messages from Kobe" (Henshu Kobo Noah) — and others speak of "disaster food" that fills both stomach and heart
, and through various experiences the thinking, quality, and function of emergency food have improved.
I too tried "chicken and mixed-rice" and "mushroom soup" heated with a chemical warmer. Put the warmer, heating agent, rice, and soup in the heating bag, pour in the activating solution, seal the zip, and wait 20 minutes. (The three photos in the article show, from top: chicken mixed-rice and mushroom soup; pouring in the solution; steam rising during heating.) Warm food is reassuring even in a disaster. The mushroom soup in particular was piping hot — personally I would love to see it on the stockpile menu.
By the way, the target daily calorie intake for evacuees (men and women aged 20–50) is 2,300 kcal; for elderly evacuees (65 and over) 1,600 kcal; and for rescuers (men aged 30–49) 3,500 kcal. Restorers and rescue workers who must run up stairs when elevators stop certainly need high-calorie meals
. This vendor's proposal included a "large portion" set as well.