Imagine being struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. Within minutes, tsunami waves as high as 130 feet leave a trail of destruction across miles of shoreline and for miles inland. Damage to the reactors at a nearby nuclear power plant causes a third disaster days later, contaminating the natural resources that hundreds of thousands of people depend on for daily survival.

Although this scenario is hypothetical for many regions of the world, millions of people in Japan can tell harrowing stories of survival from this event on March 11, 2011. This largest earthquake in the nation’s recorded history and resulting disasters cost an estimated US$235 billion and the lives of 16,000 people.

Surely, this is not an historical event that anyone would want to witness. But for Hakusan Corporation, a small Tokyo-based manufacturing company, it was the perfect test for an innovative idea that could keep another earthquake disaster from becoming even worse.