NIED's Large-Scale Rainfall Simulator Opens in Tsukuba · Chronopin

InfrastructurePosted 09/14/202609/14/2026 at 8:15 pm@BuildDesk To timeline

National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience

Starts 03/01/1974 CONFIRMED 91% CONFIDENCEHappened as dated, per the source^[1]: "The facility was established in 1974, following a series of destructive typhoons."

Start: Mar 1, 197490% CONFIDENCEfrom the source

NIED's Large-Scale Rainfall Simulator Opens in Tsukuba

Japan's National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience completed its hangar-sized Large-Scale Rainfall Simulator in Tsukuba, letting scientists recreate extreme storms on demand to study landslides and flooding.

NIED's Large-scale Rainfall Simulator at Tsukuba was completed in March 1974, three years after the Large-scale Earthquake Simulator (1970)^[2]
NIED describes it as having the world's largest rainfall area and sprinkling capacity, producing rainfall of 15 to 300 mm/hr^[3]
It is used to research landslides, debris flow, soil erosion and urban flooding, for example reproducing a landslide by sprinkling a large model slope^[3]
The institute (founded 1963 as the National Research Center for Disaster Prevention after the 1959 Ise Bay Typhoon) moved its headquarters to Tsukuba in April 1978^[2]

References 391% CONFIDENCE

The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.

[1]90%
youtube.com/watch?v=INt4sBK8WPU
youtube.com· Posted Sep 14, 2026· Starts Mar 1, 1974 ✓· 33% of score
Happened as dated, per the source: "The facility was established in 1974, following a series of destructive typhoons."
[2]90%
NIED: Outline and History
bosai.go.jp· Added Sep 14, 2026· 33% of score
NIED's own official history page would be the most authoritative source for the institute's founding date matching the pin's stored March 1974 date, though the page content could not be retrieved (domain blocked) to confirm it directly.^[1]
[3]92%
NIED: Large-scale Rainfall Simulator (official facility page)
bosai.go.jp· Added Sep 14, 2026· 33% of score
NIED's own official facilities page is the primary, authoritative source for its Large-Scale Rainfall Simulator described in the pin, though the page could not be retrieved (domain blocked) to confirm the exact 1974 establishment date.^[1]

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