Eric Takabayashi wrote:
> Declan Murphy wrote:
> 
>>So what do you want them to do, start giving every earthquake a name.
> 
> No. But if it is big like what happened in Shimane and Sendai recently, they will get
> names anyway. Not so typhoons in Japan.

Thats not true at all Eric. For example around here people still talk
about the 伊勢湾台風, and anybody who reads the newspaper automatically
remembers the date 1959/09/26 and that more than 5000 people were
killed. Even those who weren't here at the time (I wasn't even born)
learn about it as we see references to it in the paper each year. Every
bloody year as typhoons approach and I have to secure the company
premises etc, I get bombarded with reminders of the 伊勢湾台風. Prior to
it being *named* the 伊勢湾台風, it was just an ordinary garden variety
typhoon numbered 台風１５号. Excuse my provincialism, but you can read
about it at

http://www.chunichi.co.jp/saigai/isewan/

and I'm sure other regional newspapers (what is the standard deadtrees
read in Fukuyama?) will have similar archives for whatever typhoons
flattened their localities if they were so unlucky. The long and the
short of it is, just as only big earthquakes get names, only unusually
destructive typhoons get the same "privilege".

>>Great Hanshin Earthquake, Not Quite Great Kanto Earthquake, Nearly a
>>Great Kanto Earthquake, Storm in a teacup Kanto Earthquake etc? - Fact
>>of the matter is that most earthquakes/typhoons etc aren't worthy of a name.
> 
> Fact is, the cycle for earthquakes in the Kanto area is about once every 80 years, and
> the last big one in Kobe was 400 years ago, so the fact they eventually come again
> doesn't make them confusing to most people. Try that with say, 20 typhoons every single
> year with a simple number.

Sure, but 20 or so typhoons come and go each year, but very few kill
even close to 5000 people or destroy extensive amounts of industrial and
social capital. But when they do, they get a name Eric. They always do.

> And when dealing with say, 20 a year that basically hit the same region, typhoons will
> not be as distinguishable merely by "Typhoon Number Four" even if you limit yourself only
> to those Typhoons "Number Four" that cause damage.

See above - you were misinformed.

>>>>Similarly did typhoons 1-3 take my roof off?
>>>>No. Did #4 in 2003 - Yes. I reckon in that case I'd remember #4 in 2003
>>>>for quite some time.
>>>
>>>And how will other people remember "Typhoon 4" from uh, 2003? Hurricane Andrew (not
>>>even necessary to remember date to recall or search) became famous throughout the
>>>US, and internationally, despite having nothing to do with those people.
>>
>>You are missing the point - Hurricane Andrew was not famous because of
>>its name -
> 
> How strange, then, that we remember the name, not that it was Hurricane number three or
> whatever, of the year.

It is only remembered because it was big. Do you remember Hurricane
Eric? Hurricane Declan? There have been hundreds of cyclones (dozens per
year) in Australia for thousands of years. But if you asked Brett,
Rodney or any other Austrian to name "one" cyclone that comes to mind -
then I'd bet you every ramen shop in Osaka that almost without fail the
reply would be "Cyclone Tracy, Christmas Day, 1975". We don't remember
it because it was called Tracy, we remember it because it wiped the city
of Darwin out more effectively than the Imperial Japanese Navy managed
to do.

>>but its size. And the Japanese have usually been more than
>>willing to give names to major natural disasters - after they happen.
> 
> Do big typhoons get names?

Yes dammit.

>>Only if it is a big
>>earthquake/typhoon/flood whatever should it get a name.
> 
> What does "big" mean? Taking off your roof? Or does it have to kill a certain number of
> people or cause a few trillion yen in damage?

I don't think taking off your roof would be considered big. Given the
standard of housing construction, a garden variety typhoon can often
manage that.

>>Until then, a number should suffice.
> 
> Sure. Just let the rest of Japan try to tell Typhoons 1-20 of this year, apart from
> Typhoons 1-20 of every other year. And let them be more confused when they realize people
> in other countries in other languages use actual names. No matter how big they are or how
> much damage they cause in Japan, English speakers will only remember they typhoon (if
> even then) by its foreign given name, not Typhoon number 20 of 2003.

The inability of English speaking foreigners to differentiate between
one minor typhoon and another minor typhoon is hardly a reason for the
Japanese to change a Japanese system that has served Japan well enough.




-- 
"As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying
to kill me. They do not feel any enmity against me as an individual, nor
I against them. They are "only doing their duty", as the saying goes.
Most of them, I have no doubt, are kind-hearted law-abiding men who
would never dream of committing murder in private life. On the other
hand, if one of them succeeds in blowing me to pieces with a well-placed
bomb, he will never sleep any the worse for it. He is serving his
country, which has the power to absolve him from evil"  - George Orwell,
England Your England, 1941