Japan launches a new national disaster management agency to centralize preparedness, emergency response and reconstruction planning. The agency is intended to improve Japan’s readiness for high-impact events such as a megaquake along the Pacific coast or in Tokyo, or an eruption of Mount Fuji.

Japanese officials say the agency is created not for a single anticipated catastrophe, but to address concerns that the country may not be fully prepared for a disaster on the scale of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis. More than 350 workers are set to oversee the agency’s work.

Across outlets, the core details remain consistent: the new National Disaster Management Agency, its mandate covering readiness through reconstruction, and the kinds of disasters it is designed to handle. The framing differs slightly, with some reports emphasizing the government’s limits and the need for public preparedness, while others focus more on the institutional restructuring and the leadership role of the agency’s chief.