Wajima Earthquake: Lest We Forget

The New Year's Day earthquake took lives and livelihoods. The future of Wajima lacquerware is at stake.

- NICKY PESSAROFF

According to the NASA Earth Observatory, at 4:10 p.m. (Japan Standard Time) on the first day of 2024, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake shook and lurched the ground of Japan's Noto Peninsula in the northwestern Honshu region for nearly a minute, followed by dozens of strong aftershocks in the ensuing days.

Shaking was felt as far away as Tokyo, 300 miles southeast of the earthquake's epicenter. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Ishikawa Prefecture since 1885 and the strongest earthquake to hit mainland Japan since 2011. Damage from the shaking and an accompanying tsunami was most intense in the towns of Suzu, Noto, Anamizu, and Wajima. Infrastructure damage led to fires that burned through communities, causing further damage; heavy snow after the earthquake complicated emergency responses.

As of February 28, the death toll from the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake stood at 241 with 12 people still missing, all in Ishikawa Prefecture; an additional 1,296 injuries in six other prefectures makes this earthquake Japan's most destructive since the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. As of the end of February, over 10,000 people still remain in evacuation centers. The Japanese government calculates an infrastructure damage total of 1.1 trillion to 2.6 trillion yen ($7.44 billion to $17.59 billion in US dollars).

The Japanese government continues recovery efforts in Ishikawa quietly and ploddingly, but little attention is being paid outside of Japan. Had this been Tokyo or Kyoto, it is quite likely that there would still be mainstream media agencies on the ground.