is a professor in the Research Center for Urban Safety and Security in the Graduate School of Science at Kobe University

Kobe University

Shindai is one of the leading universities in Japan. It can be seen in the several rankings such as shown below.-General Rankings:The university is ranked 10th in 2010 in the ranking "Truly Strong Universities" by Toyo Keizai...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and a seismologist who has written extensively in the areas of seismicity and seismotectonics

Seismotectonics

Seismotectonics is the study of the relationship between the earthquakes, active tectonics and individual faults of a region. It seeks to understand which faults are responsible for seismic activity in an area by analysing a combination of regional tectonics, recent instrumentally recorded events,...

 in and around the Japanese Islands. He recently coined the term genpatsu-shinsai

Genpatsu-shinsai

, meaning nuclear power plant earthquake disaster is a term which was coined by Japanese seismologist Professor Katsuhiko Ishibashi in 1997...

 (原発震災), from the Japanese words for "nuclear power" and "quake disaster".

Katsuhiko Ishibashi has said that Japan’s history of nuclear accidents stems from an overconfidence in plant engineering. He was a member of a 2006 Japanese government subcommittee charged with revising the national guidelines on the earthquake-resistance of nuclear power plants, published in 2007. His proposal that the committee should review the standards for surveying active faults was rejected and, at the committee's final meeting he resigned claiming that the review process was 'unscientific' and the outcome rigged to suit the interests of the Japan Electric Association

Japan Electric Association

The is a membership organisation for the electricity sector in Japan and, although it has roots dating back to 1892, was founded in October 1921...

, which had 11 of its committee members on the 19-member government subcommittee and that among other problems the guide was 'seriously flawed' as a consequence because it underestimated the design basis earthquake ground motion

Peak ground acceleration

Peak ground acceleration is a measure of earthquake acceleration on the ground and an important input parameter for earthquake engineering, also known as the design basis earthquake ground motion...

.

In May 2011, he said "If Japan had faced up to the dangers earlier, we could have prevented Fukushima".

Publications

• Ishibashi, K., "Why worry? Japan's nuclear plants at grave risk from quake damage", International Herald Tribune
  International Herald Tribune
  The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
  
   and The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (August 11, 2007)
• Ishibashi, K., "Status of historical seismology in Japan", Annals of Geophysics', Vol.47, 339-368 (2004)
• Ishibashi, K., "Seismotectonic modeling of the repeating M 7-class disastrous Odawara earthquake in the Izu collision zone, central Japan", Earth Planets Space, Vol.56, 843-858 (2004)
• Miyoshi, T. and K. Ishibashi, "Geometry of the seismic Philippine Sea slab beneath the region from Ise Bay to western Shikoku, southwest Japan, Zisin" J. Seismol. Soc. Japan, Ser. 2, Vol.57, 139-152 (English abstract) (2004)
• Itani, Y. and Ishibashi, K., "Horizontal crustal strain in the Izu Peninsula - Mt. Fuji region derived from GEONET data and its tectonic implication, Zisin", J. Seismol. Soc. Japan, Ser. 2, Vol.56, 231-243 (English abstract) (2003)
• Harada, T. and Ishibashi, K., "The 1958 great Etorofu earthquake was a slab event: Suggestion from the mainshock-aftershock relocation", EOS, Vol. 81, No. 22 Suppl. WP157 (2000)
• Ishibashi, K., An Era of Underground Convulsions: A Seismologist Warns, Iwanami Paperbacks, Iwanami Shoten (1994)

See also

• Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant
  Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant
  The is a large, modern nuclear power plant on a 4.2-square-kilometer site including land in the towns of Kashiwazaki and Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture, Japan on the coast of the Sea of Japan, from where it gets cooling water...
  
  
• Pacific Ring of Fire
  Pacific Ring of Fire
  The Pacific Ring of Fire is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements...
  
  
• Nuclear power in Japan
  Nuclear power in Japan
  Nuclear energy was a national strategic priority in Japan, but there has been concern about the ability of Japan's nuclear plants to withstand seismic activity...
  
  
  • Seismicity
• Fukushima I nuclear accidents
• Kiyoo Mogi
  Kiyoo Mogi
  Dr is a prominent seismologist. He is regarded as Japan's foremost authority on earthquake prediction and is a former chair of the Japanese Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction . Mogi is also a former Director of the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute, was a professor...
  
  
• Geology of Japan
  Geology of Japan
  The islands of Japan are primarily the result of several large oceanic movements occurring over hundreds of millions of years from the mid-Silurian to the Pleistocene as a result of the subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate beneath the continental Amurian Plate and Okinawa Plate to the south, and...