A 6.8-magnitude earthquake rattled Japan's Nagano Prefecture in November 2014. Forty-one people were injured and 54 buildings collapsed, making for sensational coverage in the media. 【余震も】長野北部の地震 家具が倒れ、道路に亀裂 新幹線は緊急停車（画像） http://t.co/VKEvzWka1w pic.twitter.com/MRPEUVMvdw — ハフィントンポスト日本版 (@HuffPostJapan) 2014, 11月 23 Aftershocks: The earthquake in northern Nagano has left furniture strewn in cracked streets. Shinkansen bullet train services were suspended. However, there was not as much media coverage of the recent Nagano quake compared to the past. One reason may be that no one died in the recent Nagano earthquake. While the media was quick to report on the Nagano quake, in-depth reporting afterwards quickly trickled off. Even though a relatively strong 6.8-magnitude earthquake had occurred, the approach to coverage had changed. People took notice of the reduced coverage and voiced their opinions online. これだけの規模の地震なのに、テレビが地震慣れし過ぎて、速報からすぐに、ワイドショーネタに、すぐさま戻ってしまったのが、とても怖い事態だと思うんだが… — TETSU (@mediaplaning) 2014, 11月 22 Although the earthquake scale was large, the fact that television coverage quickly switched back to prime time programming is pretty scary. On the other hand, countless tweets about the earthquake were produced in a steady stream. Some Twitter users were wondering about the dearth of media coverage about the quake, while others were wondering why it was so easy to brush off such a big quake. 地震が来ても恐怖に怯えるどころかなんかtwitterが賑わうあたり日本って地震慣れしてる感ある — kamini． (@kamini_doll) 2014, 11月 22 With all of the Twitter chatter expressing fears of another quake, it's easy to understand that Japan has become a country that has become used to earthquakes. ‘It's crazy that we've become used to this’ Japanese attitudes toward earthquakes certainly seem to have changed by the experience of the “3.11 Tohoku Triple Disaster“, referring to the deadly March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami that triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As the earthquake that occurred Nagano in November 2014 illustrates, people living in Japan have become used to earthquakes (indeed, there is actually a new expression in the Japanese language that describes this phenomenon, 震慣れ (jishin-nare) or “used to earthquakes.”) On Twitter, relatively large earthquakes like the one that occurred in Nagano this past November would have at one time would have been taken quite serious. Nowadays there isn't as much of a sense of fear and anxiety being expressed there or on other social media networks. 震災の前はちょっとした地震も怖くて、震度３とか死ぬと思ってたくらい本当に怖かったんだけど、あの震災の地震を体験してそれ以降もずっと頻繁に揺れてたからびくともしなくなった。慣れってこわい。だから震度4でも普通にテレビみてる自分あぶないって思う — 宮地☆みっちゃん (@sajun1022) 2014, 11月 22 In the past, people thought even small tremors were scary. People thought they were going to die even if it was a mild Shindo 3 earthquake. After experiencing 3.11 and following the incessant aftershocks in years since, that anxiety has disappeared. Earthquakes are scary, but we're used to them. So when I'm still calmly watching television even in the middle of a Shindo 4 quake, well, that's a little strange and unsettling. Other Twitter users think the attitude of society itself towards earthquakes has changed since 3.11: 東北の地震くらい凄いものを体験したからなのか今回も凄い地震が長野で起きている筈だけど感覚が麻痺？何なのか東北の時みたいにザワザワしたままじゃなく割と普通に生活を送ってしまっている辺り慣れ？の感覚って怖いなぁって思う。 — Rei@11/25ぼっちキャラクロ (@Re1o627) 2014, 11月 23 Is it because the 3.11 Tohoku Triple Disaster was so terrible that we've come to expect that the Nagano quake will also result in terrible damage? It's almost like we as a society are in a state of paralysis. It's not like with the Tohoku triple disaster, when there was a constant background hum of discussion about what was happening. In the case of the Nagano earthquake this past November, people just resumed their daily lives. It's quite chilling to think about. The sense of passivity in the face of crisis was already apparent to some observers just one year after the 3.11 Tohoku disaster. Thanks to frequently occurring aftershocks even in regions far away from the most severely affected regions of Tohoku, regular, relatively frightening quakes which would have once upon a time been considered abnormal were now just regular life for many people. 岩手県沖震源で震度4か。普通なら大きな地震なんだけど、もはや報道すらあまりない。慣れって恐ろしい。麻痺してるんだ。 — John Neo (@Johnneosan) 2012, 7月 29 A M4 earthquake just off the coast of Iwate (about 300 km north of Tokyo). Normally this would have been considered a big deal but there's hardly any coverage. It's crazy that we've become used to this. As a society we have become numb. As the word word 慣れ (nare, to become accustomed to) spread to become a meme in the months of aftershocks following the 3.11 Tohoku Triple Disaster, many expressed their unease at what this word was actually coming to represent.