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
Damage to Urayasu City and Tokyo Disneyland
The effects of March 11's earthquake were felt in Tokyo's bayside area which is mostly reclaimed land. There were cases of liquefaction, broken water pipes, gas outages and leaning buildings.
"The north side of our house has sunk about 20cm due to liquefaction and is leaning. Watery sand covered the garden." - reported one resident.Read more