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Thousands of people commemorated on Friday the earthquake which killed more than 6,400 people in 1995 and razed a large part of the city of Kobe, in western Japan. The archipelago sees an increasing risk of a “megaseism” in the coming decades.
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January 17, 2025 – 10:27
(Keystone-ATS) The 7.2 magnitude tremor which struck Kobe on January 17, 1995 led the government to review its earthquake preparation mechanisms in the archipelago, which concentrates around a fifth of the most powerful tremors in the world.
A minute of silence was observed in the city center before dawn at 5:46 a.m. local time (9:46 p.m. in Switzerland), the exact time the earthquake – Japan’s second deadliest since World War II – struck the metropolis. port.
A man who lost his mother and sister in the disaster spoke of his trauma to public broadcaster NHK: “Every time I see someone who looks like them, I have the feeling that maybe it’s they… I’ve been living like this for 30 years.” The earthquake collapsed buildings, burying thousands of people, uprooting road bridges and railway tracks, while fires ravaged wooden houses.
-The damage inflicted on the port area, then extremely dynamic, and on infrastructure dealt a heavy blow to Kobe’s economy, causing an exodus of the population in the months and years that followed. Japan experiences more than 1000 earthquakes every year. The vast majority are harmless, but occasional powerful earthquakes can cause significant damage and loss of life.
Japan recorded a magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11, 2011, off its northeastern coast. This triggered a tidal wave which left around 20,000 people dead or missing and caused the Fukushima nuclear accident. In the west, the Ishikawa region is still struggling to recover from an earthquake that occurred on January 1, 2024, which killed some 500 people.
“Passing on the lessons”
A Japanese government panel on Thursday raised slightly, to a range between 75 and 82%, the probability that a megaquake of a magnitude equivalent to 8 or 9 will hit the country in the next 30 years. Around 530,000 people could lose their homes in the event of a megaquake at the Nankai submarine trench, which extends parallel to the country’s eastern coasts for 800 kilometers, according to an estimate by the Nikkei media.
In total, the government estimates that 9.5 million residents could be displaced if such a natural disaster occurs. In addition to frequent simulation exercises, authorities strive to maintain public awareness and reiterate instructions for preparing for major earthquakes.
In a recent NHK survey of 1,269 people who experienced the Kobe earthquake, more than 60% of respondents felt that “the memories and lessons (of the tragedy) were fading.” “We must pass on our experiences and our lessons, especially to involve the younger generations born after the earthquake,” insisted Motohiko Saito, governor of Hyogo prefecture, where Kobe is located.
Ex-Emperor Akihito, 90, and ex-Empress Michiko, 89, attended a memorial ceremony. The imperial couple arrived in the port city on Thursday, where they met survivors of the disaster. “It must have been extremely difficult,” Akihito said, according to private television TBS.
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