14 years after Great Hanshin Earthquake

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

14 years after Great Hanshin Earthquake

On January 17, Kobe and other cities in Hyogo Prefecture marked the 14th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that killed 6,434 people.

At 5:46 a.m., the time when the quake hit the area, about 100 people holding candles gathered at Suwayama Park in Kobe City, and offered a minute of silence for the victims.

That day, many citizens, including those who lost their loved ones in the quake, visited a monument that bears the names of victims. The monument stands to reflect residents' wishes for the safe reconstruction of Kobe.

Hyogo Prefecture's council for relief and rehabilitation held a memorial meeting and a tour of Nagata Ward, the most devastated district of Kobe City. The participants adopted an appeal calling on national and local governments to extend extra relief measures to help reduce the burden of housing and business loans for victims.

Many citizens are in need of public support so that they can maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living, the appeal states.

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A cooperative union survey shows that many wooden houses in Kobe have been left without necessary anti-quake reinforcements.

Of the 11,288 one- or two-storied wooden houses that were inspected by the union during April 2006-November 2008, 9,438 (or 83.6 percent) do not meet the quake-resistance standards, and 57.3 percent of them are highly likely to collapse in the event of a major quake.

While the national government's quake-resistance plan of 2006 calls for completion of quake-resistance measures for a total of one million houses by 2015, which means 115,000 houses per year, only about 5,000 houses a year undergo the necessary modifications. This central government's subsidy program does not work unless local governments establish a similar subsidy system.

- Akahata, January 18, 19, 2009