JAPAN on Wednesday marked one year since a powerful earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in central Japan, leaving at least 500 dead, including those who succumbed to health issues afterwards, as efforts towards full recovery continue in the hardest-hit areas.
Some 21,000 residents in Ishikawa Prefecture, which faces the Sea of Japan, remain evacuated or in temporary housing as of late December, with infrastructure restoration and the demolition of collapsed homes still incomplete.
The Ishikawa prefectural government held a ceremony in Wajima, one of the areas hardest hit by the earthquake, to offer condolences to the victims and pledge efforts towards reconstruction.
“There are many challenges left. To accomplish restoration and reconstruction efforts as soon as possible is the way to comfort the souls of the victims,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said at the event.
He expressed his intention to revise laws concerning disaster relief and countermeasures in a bid to strengthen social welfare and promote government-private cooperation in devastated regions.
Those in attendance observed a moment of silence for the victims at 4:10 pm, the same time the magnitude-7.6 quake occurred on New Year’s Day last year.
Kyodo
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