Comment by kalleboo

> Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards.

Since the mid-2000s there has actually been a push by Japanese utility companies for adoption of what they call "all-electric" オール電化.

Adoption has been reasonably good with new-builds because they can also have solar panels. But adoption in older properties has been slower.

First in general, electricity in Japan has tended to be more expensive than gas.

Second, a large Part of the slow adoption comes from cooking related inertia.

A lot of traditional (and therefore very common) Japanese cookware just will not work on electric, full stop. For example, traditional donabe (clay pots).

Beyond that, for example, aluminium pans being non-ferromagnetic will not work on induction. Yes you find aluminium pans in the West with extra ferromagnetic bases attached, but that is not common in Japan.

Finally, the Japan Society of Cookery Science did commission a study[1] where they had two groups of people cook four dishes on both gas and induction. The conclusion was gas was preferred across all four.

[1]https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/cookeryscience/47/6/47_...

It’s just the price of living on the Pacific ring of fire. What are you going do give up modern living in a modern country and live in tents, it is the price to pay living on or near tectonic plates, as a resident who has lived several 6.0-7.0 magnitude quakes (California) they are much easier to live through than living in hurricane or tornado alley or living in places where there is a deep freeze every other year, although in Japan, you can get the trifecta, a earthquake, Cyclone (in the south) and a deep freeze in the north Hokkaido.

Japan is a beautiful modern country and they have gotten through worse and they will get through this too.

I will admit in recent times the area between the Philippines north to the Kamchatka Peninsula is one most active areas on the planet at some point a 9.0 earthquake will happen in a major populated area on land but something that large usually happens once every 15 to 326 years.

The largest earthquake in California was 7.9, second largest 7.8 in San Francisco, the largest earthquake on west coast of North America 9.0 was Vancouver island in 1700.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/official17...

Coincidentally the Japanese recorded a mild tsunami at the time on their side of the Pacific.

Hurricanes and tornadoes are more immediate threats along with a heat wave or a cold snap.

Yeah it's crazy to me, especially in earthquake-prone places like Japan or California.

I bought a house here in Japan last year and replaced the gas with all-electric due to concerns of not only leaks and disasters but also just in day-to-day use gas isn't good for indoor air quality.

And compressed flammable gas canisters, which are sadly common all over Asia. If they leak due to structural compromise, e.g. being squashed by falling concrete, there isn't really a shutoff valve you can use.

Replicating the power density of a gas pipe requires far more than 110v ac. The future might wonder why we accepted the danger of 5,000v power lines running through food courts just to avoid using gas burners.

Ehh, without gas we wouldn't have electricity.

Gas was the most efficient way to produce electricity for its time. I agree money should of been piped in to infrastructure upgrades when the ability came yet still.

Electrical is inadequate power delivery-wise and requires completely different cookware to the point that it's a different cuisine.

For example to replicate a gas burner you have to have above 15KW continious power. Good luck wiring that into your apartment, or feeding this with local solar. Or even finding an induction stovetop that won't melt its insides in a year or two at a measly 5KW.