Japan began today exercises to cope with earthquakes in various parts of the country on the occasion of the 88th anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake. 88 years ago, on 1 September 1923, one of the worst earthquakes in world history hit the Kanto plain and destroyed Tokyo, Yokohama and the surroundings. About 140,000 people fell victim to this earthquake and the fires caused by it. The anti-earthquake training, supervised by the government, began in the early morning hours to simulate an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale north of Tokyo Bay. Radio Japan said that the government of Japan’s international outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan, supervised the training because the new government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has not yet been formed.