Thread: Strong quake prompts tsunami warning Japan

Six months on, quake-hit Noto struggles to restore phone networks

Monday marks six months since the massive New year's day earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula along the Sea of Japan.

The quake left local mobile phone networks paralyzed in many areas. Nearly 60 percent of base station cables were damaged far more seriously than in previous disasters.

The tremor left more than 3,300 people isolated in up to 24 areas in the central prefecture of Ishikawa.

Yamashita Tomotaka, a community leader in a mountainous area of Wajima City, said mudslides blocked all three access roads.

He said all mobile phones and fixed-line phones were useless immediately after the jolt.
Residents were unable to call for help from city authorities or anyone else.

"It was even impossible to call an ambulance. It's truly tough to be left without any means of communication," Yamashita said.

Six days after the quake, residents were finally able to make contact with the outside world. Ten days after the jolt, Self Defense Forces helicopters arrived to airlift about 30 residents to safer locations.

People in other parts of the prefecture had similar troubles. A communications ministry survey found that 57 percent of cables were rendered useless by mudslides or other problems. It was a situation far worse than in the 2011 quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

Toyo University Professor Nakamura Isao said: "Here in the mountainous terrain of the Noto Peninsula, the quake triggered landslides that caused extensive damage to transmission lines. People's daily lives and administrative functions rely on telecommunications. And that's becoming more important than ever. I think it's necessary to maintain some form of continuous and dependable information channels."

A US satellite communication network called Starlink was installed at evacuation shelters and elsewhere until mobile phone and internet connections were restored. More than 600 devices, including reception antennas, were loaned out by the US firm and Japan's government.

The Starlink system was installed at an evacuation center in Suzu City. Iseki Juichi is a resident who did radio service work. He says some people didn't know how to make full use of the new system.

A medical support group visiting the shelter was unable to use an app to connect to the system, so Iseki helped them sort it out. He says that in other shelters antennas were set up in areas with poor radio wave reception.

The communications ministry is planning ways to improve emergency power sources at major base stations. It wants to make satellite connections available between the stations in the event of severed power cables.

The ministry is also setting up a system in which locals can have secure communications when disasters strike.

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Former Indonesian First Lady visits earthquake-hit Taiwan region

Former Indonesian First Lady Dewi Soekarno donated 10 million yen (NT$2.02 million, US$62,000) during a visit to earthquake-hit Hualien County Saturday (June 29).

Soekarno, 84, was the fourth wife of late President Soekarno, who ruled Indonesia from independence in 1945 to 1967 and died in 1970. She was born in Japan as Nemoto Naoko and married the Indonesian leader in 1962.

She flew from Tokyo to Taiwan Saturday morning, and immediately traveled onward to Hualien to hand over the donation on behalf of the NGO Amitie Sans Frontieres, per CNA. She expressed gratitude for Taiwan’s aid after the Japanese victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, and praised the efforts of Taiwanese rescue teams in Hualien.

The magnitude 7.2 earthquake which hit the region on April 3 led to 18 deaths and two missing, while causing massive damage to the east coast county. The restoration of scenic areas at Taroko National Park will in some cases take seven years, according to officials.

Soekarno contrasted the fate of the survivors in Hualien with those of Japan’s Noto earthquake last January. In Japan, survivors still lived at a sports stadium in spaces only separated by cardboard, while those in Hualien had been provided with tents guaranteeing a higher level of privacy, she said.

Quake-Hit Districts on Noto Peninsula Consider Relocating; Residents Seek Areas Less Likely to Be Cut off Amid Disasters

At least four districts of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, a city hard hit by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, are considering the collective relocation of their residents, it has been learned.

These are the first such plans to be unveiled in areas affected by the Jan. 1 earthquake. All the four districts, which contain a total of 257 households, are aging and depopulated, and most of them are located in mountainous areas.

Severed roads temporarily isolated these districts after the quake. Many residents are hoping to relocate to places with a lower risk of isolation in case of natural disasters, and the Wajima municipal government plans to help them realize their plans. Other locations may follow suit now that these relocation plans have come to light.

Residents in up to 24 districts of four municipalities in the Okunoto region of Ishikawa Prefecture were isolated after the quake. Of these districts, 14 were in Wajima.

The four districts that are planning to relocate include the Monzen-machi Urakami district with 266 residents in 143 households; the Besshodani-machi district with 77 residents in 41 households; and the Uchikoshi-machi district with 22 residents in 11 households. These three are located in mountainous areas.

The remaining district is Inabune-machi, which is situated along the sea with 119 residents in 62 households.

In Monzen-machi Urakami, where 26 communities are scattered across the district, residents hope to collectively relocate to an area around the Urakami community center near the national highway. Residents in Besshodani-machi are considering moving to an area along the national highway about four kilometers north of the district, while those in Uchikoshi-machi are planning to go to an area along a prefectural road about two kilometers southeast of the district.

All the relocation sites are relatively close to their current residences and have better access to the city center.

“Our district has many elderly people. There was a landslide recently and it would dangerous if we’re cut off again,” said Hitoshi Yachi, 66, the head of the Uchikoshi-machi district.

Each district will hold discussions among its residents to decide whether everyone will relocate or only some of them. In Monzen-machi Urakami and Besshodani-machi, nearly half of the residents hope to relocate to new sites.

The Wajima municipal government has a “compact city” initiative to consolidate certain administrative and other functions, and the collective relocation plans are in line with that initiative. “We want to support these districts so that their communities will not be disbanded,” Wajima Mayor Shigeru Sakaguchi told The Yomiuri Shimbun on Wednesday.

In Noto, a town in the Okunoto region that was affected by tsunami, the head of the Shiromaru district and other residents were to discuss collective relocation with town officials on Wednesday. Shiromaru has 192 residents in 95 households.

In the cities of Suzu and Anamizu, there are reportedly no concrete plans for collective relocation.

Among the existing frameworks for collectively relocating residents is the disaster mitigation collective relocation promotion project, under which the central government subsidizes three-fourths of the land acquisition and other related costs. According to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, about 12,500 households collectively relocated to new sites following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Similar relocations took place in Nagaoka and Ojiya, both in Niigata Prefecture, after the 2004 Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake.

6 Months Later, Noto Earthquake Victims Mourned

Residents of areas affected by the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake in central Japan offered prayers for the victims on Monday, which marked half a year since the disaster.

At the Ishikawa prefectural government office in Kanazawa, the capital of the quake-hit prefecture, Governor Hiroshi Hase and prefectural government staff offered a moment of silence for the victims.

"The state of emergency for the quake has not been lifted yet," the governor told the staff. "Let's go forward bearing in mind the feelings of those who died regretful deaths."

The death toll of the magnitude-7.6 earthquake, including those who died due to causes indirectly related to the disaster, has reached 281.

Kyoko Kinoshita, a 62-year-old local resident, laid flowers and prayed for the victims near the Asaichi-dori morning market area in the Ishikawa city of Wajima, where damaged houses still remain in the aftermath of a massive fire triggered by the quake. She said she will never forget a classmate from high school who died in the disaster.

Visit to Ishikawa Prefecture to Confirm the Extent of the Damage Caused by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake

On July 1, 2024, Prime Minister Kishida visited Ishikawa Prefecture to confirm the extent of the damage caused by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake.

Prime Minister Kishida attended a launching ceremony of the Noto Creative Reconstruction Task Force in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture. The Prime Minister then observed the reconstruction of seawalls and the damage to hotels and inns in Nanao City, Ishikawa Prefecture.

At the end of the visit, the Prime Minister spoke to the press regarding his visit.

Noto area still struggling with aftermath of New Year's quake

Six months since the New Year's Day quake struck the Noto Peninsula area of Ishikawa Prefecture, locals are continuing to struggle with the aftermath of the magnitude 7.6 temblor.

The quake, which left 281 people dead, also damaged 83,980 houses and forced up to 34,000 people to evacuate from their homes.

The number of evacuees dropped to 2,288 as of Thursday, and shelters are gradually shrinking. Water outages have been resolved except for about 1,500 houses in mountainous areas where there is a risk of landslides.

Construction of temporary housing has progressed, and about 17,000 people have moved in makeshift houses, including existing apartments rented by local governments. By the end of August, the Ishikawa Prefectural Government aims to complete about 6,800 houses that municipalities have applied for.

The demolition of collapsed houses at public expense, meanwhile, has not progressed. More than 18,000 of about 20,000 houses for which applications were accepted have not yet been dismantled.

The population outflow was serious in the prefecture, especially among younger generations. In four municipalities in the Okunoto region that were hit hard by the quake, the population fell by 2,600 in the four months since the quake, three times the number over the same period last year.

In the Okunoto region, elderly people accounted for as high as about 50% of the total population as of April, meaning that local governments have to step up efforts to prevent their isolated deaths.

The prefectural government and municipalities will use about ¥54 billion in reconstruction funds created with state tax grants to provide support for people affected by the quake.

Moment of silence marks 6 months since Noto quake

Locals held a moment of silence to mark 6 months since the Noto Peninsula earthquake as government funded demolition and cleanup operations of the area continue.

A moment of silence was observed on Asaichi Street in Wajima at 4:10PM, the time at which the shindo 7 or magnitude 7.6 New Year’s Day quake struck the peninsula and caused a large fire to break out.

Well wishes were decorated at stations along the Noto Railway, which fully resumed operation in April.

I feel that many people are looking after us.

People at each evacuation site were also seen praying.

Officials reported 299 deaths in the Noto Peninsula earthquake, including all those in the process of being recognized as a disaster related death.

2,086 people remain in evacuation sites as of July 1.

New recovery task force sent to Noto, 6 months after earthquake

Six months after the devastating Noto Peninsula earthquake, the government on July 1 deployed a new reconstruction task force to the stricken area for long-term operations.

The team, consisting of 150 officials from various government agencies, aims to accelerate cross-ministerial efforts while demonstrating the Kishida administration’s commitment to Noto’s recovery.

“The government will tackle problems through a unified effort to rebuild to meet the needs of the affected municipalities,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a meeting here to kickstart the task force.

He also unveiled a new subsidy program to promote tourism in the region, with up to 70 percent of travel expenses covered by the government. He added that details of the initiative will be announced later.

One goal of the task force is to streamline reconstruction efforts and enhance efficiency.

“Disaster recovery efforts are often fragmented and lack coordination between government agencies,” said an official from the prime minister’s office. “For example, just removing debris blocking part of a road can involve officials from multiple government offices. The task force aims to integrate these efforts.”

Due to the Noto Peninsula’s remote location and rugged geographical features, the New Year’s Day earthquake left officials struggling to get a thorough picture of the damage, causing delays in lifeline recoveries, according to a government report released last month.

Drawing on lessons learned from this and other reports, the task force will focus on rebuilding communities with enhanced disaster resilience.

Sources close to the prime minister said the renewed focus on Noto’s recovery may help strengthen Kishida’s position ahead of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election in September.

The sources said it is unusual for a government to heighten, rather than scale back, recovery efforts after the initial response in the first six months subsides.

Survey Finds Japan’s Noto Earthquake Survivors Less Optimistic; 30％ Think It May Take Over 10 years If Ever to Return to Pre-Quake Lives

More than 30% of Noto Peninsula Earthquake survivors either think it would take more than 10 years to return to their pre-quake lives, or would never happen, according to a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

The percentage to the question, which asked how long they think it would take to return to a pre-quake life, increased by about 1.5 times compared to a previous survey conducted between Jan. 23-26 — about a month after the quake — showing a situation where many quake survivors have little hope about rebuilding their lives.

The recent survey was conducted on the same people who responded to the January survey, which was conducted on 133 people affected by the disaster in Ishikawa Prefecture. Ninety-six people responded to the recent survey, which was conducted between June 6-11 by phone or in person.

In the June survey, 10 people said it would take more than 10 years to return to their pre-disaster life, and 21 people said they did not think they could resume their lives. Eleven people had said in the January survey that it would take over 10 years, while only 10 people had said it would never get back to their pre-disaster life. The amount of respondents who gave the latter response was almost double from the January survey.

Behind such perspectives is slow progress on the demolition of damaged houses — a prerequisite for rebuilding their lives. The Ishikawa prefectural government expects to demolish about 22,000 houses by the end of October 2025. As of the end of June, however, only 1,076 houses were demolished, including those demolished at the owners’ own expense.

Many of the respondents gave comments for swift demolition using public funding, with a thirty-something year old Nanao woman saying, “We can live in temporary housing for no more than two years, but it takes time to rebuild a house.”

The slow restoration of infrastructure that supports respondents’ livelihood also has frustrated them. “I can’t work unless I can use the port,” a man in his 70s from Wajima said, while a man in his 50s in Shika said, “The roads have not been restored, so it takes time to commute.”

As for assistance expected from local governments, 41 people called for housing reconstruction costs, while 23 people responded with living expenses.