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Bomb shelter sales up dramatically in 2017, particularly in Japan

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/the-bomb-shelter-biz-is-exploding.html

Sales of bomb shelters first began spiking after last year’s election, at least for Gary Lynch, general manager of Rising S Bunkers in Texas. He told the Miami Herald in January that sales were up 700 percent since Trump was elected, with many people citing a desire to avoid the “Trumpocalypse” or “Trumpnado.” And that was before Trump had time to do anything dumb.

By April, the company’s owner Clyde Scott told CNBC that Rising S was backlogged with work stretching out for the next year. And if you believe him, he may not be able to finish fast enough to save all his customers. “We are the longest living government in the history of the world without a complete collapse, the United States,” he said, like a true salesman. “It’s our time.”

The bunkers Scott sells are only for those with deep pockets — his most popular version is a 500-square-foot, $125,000 underground lair — and he markets to those with unrelenting paranoia. In a comment on one YouTube video, written years before Trump even took office, Scott’s company says, “Nuclear threats and global war are realities we are threatened with on a daily basis. Our steel bomb shelters are the perfect way to ensure your family’s future.”


As 2017 wore on, Kim Jong-un joined Trump on the list of reasons to hide underground. The North Korean leader has always been an unhinged egomaniac with designs on nuclear weapons, but he’s grown more brazen and more confrontational than ever before. That’s opened up a new market for bomb shelters, Ron Hubbard, owner of Atlas Survival, recently told Bloomberg.

Despite lying squarely within range of Kim’s itchy trigger finger for years, people in Japan are now ordering bomb shelters like never before. “Japan’s going hog wild right now,” Hubbard said. In an interview this week with Circa, Hubbard added, “The Japanese market, which is the hot market right now, it was non-existent for me six months ago, seven months ago. It pretty much started when Kim Jong-un started testing all of his long range ballistic missiles.”

Gary Lynch of Rising S has seen the interest too. In late July, inquires to his company doubled, he told Bloomberg, with 80 percent coming from Japan.


North Korea’s first-ever test of an ICBM on July 4 spurred the interest. Pyongyang followed that by testing a second ICBM three weeks later. So far this year, the country has carried out 18 missile tests, which puts it on pace to conduct more tests than ever before, according to CNN. And now, with reports of Kim having a “miniaturized nuclear warhead,” and Trump’s threatening “fire and fury,” sales of bomb shelters are sure to surge.

But if Scott and Hubbard are ever going to find a wide market for these cramped paranoia dens, they’re going to have to bring the cost down. To that end, Atlas Survival recently introduced the Bombnado — a smaller underground bunker that goes for as little as $18,999 (assault rifles not included).

From one of the Bloomberg articles referenced in the link above:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...s-are-booming-after-north-korea-s-icbm-launch

“Japan’s going hog wild right now,” said Ron Hubbard, owner of Atlas Survival. The Montebello, California-based company makes about a dozen different underground refuge models intended to be inhabitable for six months to a year, some outfitted with escape tunnels, decontamination rooms and bulletproof hatches.

While the Japanese have viewed North Korea as a menace for decades, the rogue regime’s July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile raised the level of alarm among preppers, as some people serious about emergency preparedness call themselves. Japan has its own small bunker-making sector, but the U.S., unique in its abundance of survivalist networks, is ground zero for get-ready-for-Armageddon businesses.

Like Atlas Survival, underground-shelter manufacturer Rising S Co. in Murchison, Texas, has been inundated. Inquiries about its steel-clad products have doubled in the past three weeks, and 80 percent have come from Japan, said General Manager Gary Lynch.

The company website lays out the many options — a decontamination area, a fitness center, a swimming pool, a gun range, a game room with pool tables, a garage for your Porsche. The Aristocrat, big enough to sleep more than 50 and delivered with a bowling alley, is listed at $8.35 million.


North Korea is behind the fresh interest, Lynch said. “It’s really not a new threat, it’s just something the media and people are paying attention to.”

The government of Shinzo Abe takes it all seriously, regularly updating its civil-protection website with tips (stay inside, keep away from windows) and airing public-interest ads on TV about what to do in event a ballistic missile is en route and the country’s early warning system successfully sounds the alert. Children are given instructions at school — basically, get under your desks.

“People are genuinely afraid,” said Seiichiro Nishimoto, president of Shelter Co., an Osaka-based installer of air-conditioned nuclear shelters imported from Israel. “That’s why we’re getting so many calls.”


In Japan and around the world, “people are getting off the fence — we’ve got thousands and thousands of applications,” said Robert Vicino, founder and chief executive officer of Vivos, in Del Mar, California, maker of a luxury lineup that can withstand what its website calls “a future life-extinction event.”

Advertised features include nuclear-biological-chemical air-filtration systems, space to store enough food and toilet paper for a year, a diesel generator, an emergency exit shaft and, importantly, the ability to take a 500,000-pound blast without crumpling.

Vivos (“alive” in Spanish) sells models for individual and communal use, and has built subterranean survival communities in the U.S. and Europe. The latest is xPoint, on 9,000 acres in South Dakota, with 575 off-grid dugouts and planned amenities including a community theater, hydroponic gardens, shooting ranges and a members-only restaurant and bar. The upfront cost to lease one is $25,000. Vicino, the CEO, said about 50 have been leased or reserved so far.

The company has nothing planned yet for Japan, but a so-called survival resort is in the works for South Korea. “We hope we’re done in time,” Vicino said, referring to impending disaster.

VICE also has a video news piece up on how Japan's been responding:

https://news.vice.com/story/japans-doomsday-bunker-business-is-booming-thanks-to-north-korea

While the rest of the world watches North Korea’s nuclear program with an increasing sense of alarm, Japan is actively preparing.

In July, the town of Takaoka held the country’s first emergency drill and evacuated residents to an underground mall. Just two weeks later, North Korea conducted another in a series of recent nuclear tests, which resulted in a missile landing within 230 miles of Japan’s exclusive economic zone. This year alone, about a dozen of North Korea’s test missiles have landed in the Sea of Japan.

Anxiety is so high that some private citizens are taking preparedness to the next level and buying bunkers from companies like Oribe Seiki Seisakusho, whose sales have tripled since March. The company, which has been selling disaster-readiness supplies for more than 30 years, can’t even keep its most popular product, air filters, in stock.


VICE News went to Japan to see how citizens are preparing for a possible North Korean attack.
 

EVOL 100%

Member
Meanwhile in Korea, nobody gives a single shit.

It's kinda funny how different the reactions towards this situation are.
The company has nothing planned yet for Japan, but a so-called survival resort is in the works for South Korea. ”We hope we're done in time," Vicino said, referring to impending disaster.

Lol, I know this guy is trying to sell a product but this is just ridiculous.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I live on the west coast of Japan in Nagasaki.

I'm getting a little anxious for sure, but not enough to leave the country right now. If war breaks out between the US and NK I'll try to leave.
 
Time to go back home to Tifton, Ga

Screen-Shot-2015-11-17-at-12.47.01-PM.png


It has this thing.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/georgia-underground-bunker-hits-market-175-million/26807449
 

EVOL 100%

Member
I live on the west coast of Japan in Nagasaki.

I'm getting a little anxious for sure, but not enough to leave the country right now. If war breaks out between the US and NK I'm outta here for sure.

If you're American, you'd know whether war is actually coming well before it actually starts.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I'm not surprised that Japanese people are anxious about a threat closer to home. Many of my coworkers want to visit Western Europe l, but are afraid to travel due to the risk of terrorism. They think the attacks are far more common then they actually are. Maybe their media is responsible for that. IDK.
 

norm9

Member
I can see why it's nothing for the SKers who literally have a hostile nation pointing misses at them 24/7 for the past 50 odd years. The Japanese can distance themselves slightly from the conflict. If I had the cash to blow, I'd be touring some bomb shelters. I'd want one with a half court and a five yard line.
 
I'd like to see where in Japan they'd build those... the cities more likely affected by an attack are so crowded that they literally have no space to build them.
 

Cookie18

Member
Stopped reading when the idiot claimed the US has the longest history of non collapsing government. Insanely ignorant.
 

Kthulhu

Member
I'm not surprised that Japanese people are anxious about a threat closer to home. Many of my coworkers want to visit Western Europe l, but are afraid to travel due to the risk of terrorism. They think the attacks are far more common then they actually are. Maybe their media is responsible for that. IDK.

The media definitely contributes to it. I imagine it's more common in the EU than the US, but I'm guessing you're more likely to be hit by a truck than get killed by terrorists.
 
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