Edogawa Ward didn¡¯t mince words when it updated its hazard map in May for the first time in 11 years.
¡°Do not remain here,¡± it said in bold letters, urging residents to flee from the ward to other areas in the event of wide-scale flooding. The municipality has reason to be concerned: sandwiched between the Arakawa and Edogawa rivers and facing Tokyo Bay, 70 percent of its land is below sea level, making it one of the most vulnerable among the capital¡¯s 23 wards to disasters caused by torrential rain, typhoons and high tides.
It¡¯s not only Edogawa. Most areas in the low-lying ¡°five wards of Koto¡± in eastern Tokyo ¡ª also including Adachi, Katsushika, Koto and Sumida ¡ª will be submerged in a worst-case scenario, it said, affecting 2.5 million people, or over 90 percent of the entire population of the five wards combined.
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