Japan Press Weekly

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2011 January 12 - 18 [WELFARE]

Survivors of Kobe Earthquake fear losing houses

January 17 marked the 16th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that claimed more than 6,000 lives and damaged about 470,000 houses.

Today the bright lights of downtown Kobe do not show any trace of the earthquake. However, many survivors are still experiencing hardships.

What is of particular concern is that people living in 6,700 public housing units, which Kobe City and Hyogo Prefecture rented from the Urban Renaissance Agency, an independent administrative body, and private owners for 20 years, are being forced to leave on the grounds that the leases will soon expire.

According to a prefectural survey on October 2010, about half of residents living in the public housing units state that it is difficult for them to move out because they are suffering from illnesses and bad health or are too old to be moved. Meanwhile, 86 percent of the residents responded that they want to continue to live there in a questionnaire released on January 13 by the Japanese Communist Party Hyogo Prefectural and Kobe City assembly members groups.

The JCP in local assemblies urged the prefectural government and municipal governments to allow the residents to remain in the housing units. In response to this, Takarazuka City announced that it will let them stay in the units while the governor of the Hyogo Prefecture said he will consider the possibility of buying the housing projects.

In addition to these publicly rented housing units, the prefectural and municipal governments provided a number of public housing units where 40,000 people are living in which 48.2 percent of occupants are more than 65 years old, twice the number in ordinary prefectural housing units. Under this circumstance, the solitary deaths of elderly people have become a social issue. In 2010, 51 people died alone and unattended, totaling 681since the quake.