If you believe the hype, then the Metropolitan Area Underground Discharge Channel stops Tokyo flooding. It doesn't. But it is one colossal part of a huge network of flood defences that protect a city that would otherwise be... well, very wet.

MORE ABOUT THE DISCHARGE CHANNEL:

The Discharge Channel's site (in Japanese): http://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/edogawa/gai...

Advice for English-speaking visitors:
https://matcha-jp.com/en/4002

REFERENCES:

"Below sea level" and "aging levees": http://www.kensetsu.metro.tokyo.jp/co... [PDF, parts translated in https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/cl... ]
"All that protects the two and a half million people": https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/...
Discharge channel stats: http://www.japanriver.or.jp/EnglishDo... [PDF]


THANKS TO:
Local fixer: Yamada Masato
Post translator: Dominic Jacobs

Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin)

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