The first anniversary of the earthquake off Niigata Prefecture came Wednesday, reviving sad memories for residents in Kashiawazaki, Niigata Prefecture, and other places. The quake resulted in the deaths of 15 people, and more than 2,300 were injured. Some 40,000 homes sustained damage, including 1,330 that were destroyed.
Some 2,500 people are still living in makeshift public housing. They can remain there for a maximum of two years under regulations. But some of them have no prospect of finding or building new homes. Helping them to find permanent housing is an urgent issue that must be solved.
The magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred in the Sea of Japan close to Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Kashiawazaki-Kariwa nuclear-power plant, the world's largest nuclear complex with a combined output of 8.21 million kilowatts. The quake has caused worries about the quake resistance of this nation's nuclear power plants. The designs for the complex were made a long time before the September 2006 revision of the guidelines for nuclear-power plant designs. The complex's seventh and newest reactor went into operation in 1997. The complex's operation is still halted.