insights from frontier Japan

Three years have passed since a massive earthquake struck Hokkaido’s eastern Iburi region, killing 44 people, but some hard-hit areas are still suffering from the aftermath of the disaster in the form of depopulation.

September 6 marked the third anniversary of the Eastern Iburi Earthquake, the first earthquake in Hokkaido to measure a seismic intensity of 7, killing 44 people throughout the region. Silent prayers were held for the victims, by residents of the town of Atsuma in the Iburi region of central Hokkaido, which suffered the most damage during the earthquake, and where 37 people died. In the towns of Mukawa and Abira in the same region, too, residents renewed their determination to trace memories of the time of the earthquake, and pass on their experiences and lessons learned, to the next generation.

The town of Atsuma suffered a devastating landslide due to the Eastern Iburi Earthquake that erupted in central Hokkaido on September 6, 2018. View the Yoshino district reconstruction efforts through a two-year span of aerial photography.