Overview
- An interviewed survivor in her 60s from Nishinomiya still owes more than ¥5 million and pays over ¥80,000 a month after borrowing roughly ¥35 million across an original 1985 mortgage and a post-quake rebuilding loan scheduled over 35 years.
- Her family’s finances were stretched for decades, cutting celebrations and travel, with one child leaving a private university to work to help cover costs.
- After the 1995 quake, national donations totaled about ¥180 billion, which came to roughly ¥400,000 per household, and earthquake insurance uptake in the prefecture was around 3%.
- The 1995 Great Hanshin–Awaji Earthquake caused 6,434 deaths and about 250,000 homes were totally or partially destroyed, leaving many households with overlapping mortgage debt.
- The quake spurred creation of public rebuilding assistance, but Professor Masaki Murosaki cautions the system is now weakening and risks returning to a pre-1995 emphasis on self-reliance, a concern as authorities prepare for potential future megaquakes such as a Nankai Trough event.