Photo/Illutration Collapsed homes remain in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 20. (Taku Hosokawa)

KANAZAWA--About 90 percent of the people killed in the Jan. 1 earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula died under collapsed homes, data from the Ishikawa prefectural government showed.

Specific causes include crushing and suffocation, but prefectural officials have not disclosed details out of consideration for bereaved families.

By Jan. 22, 233 deaths had been confirmed, including those indirectly caused by the quake.

The prefectural government has announced the names and ages of 114 victims and the circumstances in which 111 of those died after obtaining consent from their families.

According to the data, 100 people, or about 90 percent, died under collapsed homes. About 60 percent of those victims were in their 70s or older.

Eight died in landslides and one died in a tsunami.

The remaining two deaths--one at an evacuation center and the other at home--are suspected “disaster-related deaths” attributable to factors such as illnesses developed during evacuation and injuries sustained during the earthquake.

Akiyoshi Nishimura, a professor of forensic medicine at Tokushima University who analyzed causes of deaths in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, emphasized the importance of reinforcing homes against earthquakes in advance.

“Many people likely died of suffocation after being trapped under beams and pillars in their homes in the Jan. 1 earthquake,” he said. “Detailed causes of deaths should be disclosed at some appropriate time to review the situation for future generations.”

Researchers at Tohoku University’s International Research Institute of Disaster Science inspected about 400 houses destroyed or damaged in Nanao and Anamizu in Ishikawa Prefecture.

They found that almost all were wooden structures built before 1981, when the current seismic standards were introduced.

The current standards require houses to withstand earthquake intensities of upper 6 and 7 on the Japanese scale of 7.

The magnitude-7.6 earthquake on New Year’s Day registered 7 in Shika and upper 6 in Wajima, Suzu, Nanao and Anamizu.

But only 45 percent of the homes in Wajima met the current seismic standards in fiscal 2022, and 51 percent in Suzu met the standards in fiscal 2018.

The figures compare poorly with the national average of 87 percent in 2018.

The cost of anti-seismic reinforcement work poses a heavy burden on the aging population of the Noto Peninsula.

Hachiro Yamashita, 75, said walls of his two-story wooden house in Wajima, which was built 60 years ago by his grandfather, fell off in the earthquake. 

“I probably should have made my home more quake-resistant, but I didn’t have the money,” Yamashita said.

The prefectural government said at least 37,000 homes were destroyed or damaged as of Jan. 22, but exact figures from the hardest-hit areas are still unavailable.

The number of destroyed and damaged homes exceeded 200,000 in the Great Hanshin Earthquake and 40,000 in the twin Kumamoto earthquakes in 2016.

Experts said the earthquake resistance of many homes was insufficient in both disaster areas.

“Under the old seismic standards, homes were designed to escape damage from earthquakes with an intensity of around upper 5,” said Akihiro Shibayama, an associate professor at Tohoku University’s International Research Institute of Disaster Science.

“This earthquake caused an even greater shaking, which led to significant damage. The situation is the same as in past earthquakes.”

Related News