Residents move back into 'completely destroyed' building

After a year and four months of waiting, residents of "Neo Heights Kuwano" in Fukushima's Koriyama City have been given the all-clear to move back into their apartments after the building was repaired following serious damage sustained during the Tohoku earthquake last year.

The first four floors of the building suffered damage to their exterior walls and the reinforcing inside the building's columns had broken. This led the city to declare it as 'completely destroyed'. As the majority of the apartment doors were jammed and could not be opened, the residents had to move out.Read more


An update on building damage from the Tohoku earthquake

Just after the March 11 Tohoku earthquake it was announced that zero buildings had collapsed, which everyone naturally assumed was a testament to the strict building codes in Japan.

However, it has now been acknowledged that 100 apartment buildings in Sendai city have been completely destroyed.

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3480 homes completely destroyed in Kanto area following Tohoku disaster

An investigation by the Tokyo Shimbun has found that as many as 3480 homes in the Kanto area were completely destroyed in the Tohoku disaster. A further 2815 homes were partially destroyed and will need to be demolished. In some areas, the number of partially destroyed homes equalled the number that were completely destroyed.

Homeowners may be eligible to receive a maximum of 3 million Yen as compensation, but high construction costs mean that very few homes are being rebuilt. It has been almost 11 months since the disaster and the full extent of the damage is only now coming to the surface.Read more


Damage to Cultural Properties in the Great East Japan Earthquake

The following is a list of Japan's designated cultural properties that suffered damage from the earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. In the Tohoku region, a total of 250 cultural properties were damaged, while in the Kanto area, which includes Tokyo, a total of 435 cultural properties suffered damage.

Built in 1906, Izura-Rokkakudo in Kita-Ibaraki City was washed away by the March 11 tsunami.

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Does your apartment building have earthquake insurance?

*If you own an apartment in Japan, you can take out optional earthquake insurance. This insurance only covers your apartment and does not cover the common areas of the building or the structure itself. The management association for the building can take out earthquake insurance on the common areas, but as it turns out, less than a third of all buildings are covered.

Owners of apartments in uninsured buildings are facing great repair bills as a result of the March 11 Tohoku Earthquake.Read more


March 11 Earthquake and the condition of Tokyo

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Aoyama Cemetary, March 12

The initial quake hit early on a Friday afternoon while many people were working. Tokyo's 23 Wards recorded a Shindo Level of 5-upper. Click here to read about the Japanese seismic sales.

Immediately after the quake, shopowners and local residents went to check on each other. Many officeworkers had vacated their buildings and were waiting on the streets when a strong aftershock hit about 30 minutes later.Read more