Earthquake intensity scale (earthquakes in Japan)

I. Seismic Intensity Scale

Forget the Richter scale, Tokyo’s Minato Ward has a far more helpful and amusing scale for judging earthquake intensity, their Seismic Intensity Scale.

This scale could probably be used to measure intoxication…with similar results.

Scale zero is pretty self-explanatory. Not sure I follow the graphic, though.

“People have difficulty standing still.”

A.k.a nomohodai 飲み放題 stage (all-you-can-drink stage):

I believe this scale is a version of the Japan Meteorological Agency Seismic Intensity Scale 気象庁震度階級, aka the JMA intensity scale, or Shindo 震度 for short, which means ‘seismic intensity’. You can check out the JMA website, which includes the following graphic:

II. Mercalli earthquake scale

This scale is similar to the Mercalli intensity scale メルカリ震度階級, which measures the effects of an earthquake on a 10 or 12-point scale.

Here’s another one from Shimane Prefecture (PDF):

Here’s a comparison of the Mercalli scale to the Richter scale (source):

Comparison of the Mercalli intensity scale vs. Richter earthquake scale.

See also:

Another intensity scale I recently found..

This wonderful earthquake intensity scale 震度階級 doubles as an illustration of Japanese gender roles. How efficient! pic.twitter.com/wWG1mlN65n
— the tokyo files (@thetokyofiles) March 13, 2016