Risk: "Tokyo area earthquake has potential to drive $3 Trillion property loss: KCC"

From Artemis, August 27:

A repeat of the 1923 Kanto earthquake in the Tokyo region of Japan could result in property losses of as high as $1.5 trillion, while a higher magnitude quake could cost the country as much as $3 trillion, catastrophe modellers Karen Clark & Company believes.

 

Karen Clark & Company’s (KCC) latest Japanese earthquake catastrophe risk model shows that economic and insured exposures in Japan have continued to rise and the financial costs of earthquakes in highly populated areas of the country could be extremely high.

The 1923 Kanto earthquake occurred just off the coast of Japan and caused violet ground motion in both Tokyo and Yokohama.

Scientists estimate this to have been an earthquake with a magnitude somewhere between 7.9 and 8.3 and KCC says this represents and event with a return period of between 200 to 300 years.

KCC’s new Japan Earthquake risk model shows that a repeat of such an event close to Tokyo could result in around $1.5 trillion of property losses, both covered by insurance and economic.

As this same region is also susceptible to larger earthquake events, a higher magnitude quake is thought possible of causing an economic and insured impact of as high as $3 trillion, the company said.

Such an event would cause catastrophic damages for the insurance and reinsurance industry to deal with, even though the majority would be uninsured....MORE