15 years pass since Kobe quake

[FarCenter]

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T100116003183.htm

The Yomiuri Shimbun

KOBE--Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will be among those attending a memorial ceremony Sunday in Chuo Ward, Kobe, to mark the 15th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.

The earthquake struck at 5:46 a.m. on Jan. 17, 1995, ultimately taking the lives of 6,434 people in the Kansai region. Soon after the disaster, Kobe's population dropped to 1.42 million, but by January this year it had recovered to an estimated record high of 1.54 million.

However, the population of the city's four western wards, including Hyogo and Nagata, have remained at between 78 percent and 92 percent of their levels before the quake.

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A total of 240,956 buildings were completely or partly destroyed in Hyogo Prefecture as a result of the 1995 Hanshin earthquake and 7,534 burned down. The quake also forced 316,678 people to move to 1,153 evacuation centers.

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Of course, Japan was a rich country by 1995, it had strict building codes to mitigate earthquake damage, and it had the resources to help its own people.