The numbers are noteworthy.
In late July, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Japan , causing part of a shopping mall to collapse, destroying an ancient temple, and killing at least 36 people.n late July, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Japan , causing part of a shopping mall to collapse, destroying an ancient temple, and killing at least 36 people.
Casualties from a shallow earthquake of this magnitude occurring inland are usually catastrophic. However, compared to the number of deaths in many earthquakes of similar intensity in many parts of the world , the figure of 36 is still low and noteworthy.
For example, the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Türkiye and Syria (though stronger than the earthquake in Japan, the difference wasn’t too great) killed over 50,000 people and destroyed approximately 185,000 buildings. Similarly, the 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 also resulted in at least 86,000 deaths.
The 2011 Great Disaster in Japan, measuring 9 on the Richter scale, was far more severe than the latest earthquake. However, the majority of the approximately 18,000 people who died then were killed by tsunamis following the earthquake, not by collapsing buildings.
According to experts, the building structure is the key factor. In most earthquakes, it is the collapse of structures that causes fatalities, not the tremors themselves. Meanwhile, Japan has spent over half a century researching and designing earthquake-resistant buildings.
Professor Daniel Aldrich of Northeastern University, who specializes in studying disaster recovery in Japan, compared the number of earthquake fatalities with government spending on safety and social welfare measures. He found a strong correlation between the two: the more a country invests, the lower the number of fatalities in an earthquake.
