Tens of thousands of people have been taking part in disaster drills across Japan. Our correspondent Terrence Terashima has more.

Japanese have coped with Tsunamis and earthquakes for centuries, and to commemorate the great Kanto earthquake, that devastated the greater Tokyo area in 1923, annual earthquake and tsunami drills are held across the country in September.

However, in the last decade Japan has suffered new types of disasters, caused by irregular torrential rains that killed hundreds of people.

TERRENCE TERASHIMA TOKYO "These kind of major exercises are important to ensure coordination between the local residents, police, fire brigade as well as the Self Defense Force. The faster the initial actions, the better chance for more people to be saved, within the critical 72 hours. Especially with the ever-changing weather patterns it is important for the services to adapt to the kinds of disasters they might face in the future."

Tens of thousands of residents and services participated in the disaster drills across the country over the weekend. Confirming evacuation procedures to ensuring public safety.

In the 2011 tsunami, 23 elementary school children were killed in Miyagi Prefecture after a school failed to evacuate the students to higher grounds. And in July this year, flooding and landslides killed over one hundred people, some neglected to evacuate underestimating the magnitude of the disaster.

Experts say these drills are important for people to understand how to protect themselves as well as not to underestimate natural disasters.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike was particularly keen on holding wide scales disaster drills, as Tokyo is scheduled to hold summer Olympics in 2020.

Japan faced heat waves and number of typhoons in July and August this year. Safety and readiness is high on the government's agenda. Terrence Terashima, CGTN, Tokyo.