News Tokyo to set up missile shelter in Azabu-Juban Station

[thomas]

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has revealed that it is planning to build an underground missile shelter under the Azabu-Juban subway station in Tokyo's Minato Ward, in a move that comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions and concerns over national security.

Image credit: Yomiuri​

According to metropolitan government sources, the underground shelter would be a facility at which residents could take refuge if a protracted attack makes being aboveground dangerous. The facility would be equipped with food, water, ventilation equipment, emergency power sources, communication devices and other essential items that would enable people to stay for a long period. The metropolitan government plans to start drawing up a design that converts an emergency supplies warehouse within Azabu-juban Station into the new underground emergency shelter. Research costs for the project will be included in the initial draft budget for the next fiscal year. The shelter is expected to be completed in a few years. However, maintenance costs for such a shelter will run into hundreds of millions of yen, so constructing such facilities across the whole of Tokyo will be difficult. As a result, the metropolitan government hopes the private sector will take a larger role in providing such emergency facilities, such as by constructing buildings with underground spaces that could be converted into shelters.

Tokyo Set to Build Underground Shelter in Event of Missile Attack

The Tokyo metropolitan government intends to construct an underground shelter in which residents can stay for a fixed period in the event of a missile attack by a foreign nation, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

japannews.yomiuri.co.jp

Tokyo to create underground missile shelter in Azabu-Juban station

The move comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions, with Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike highlighting the “threat of ballistic missiles.”

www.japantimes.co.jp