Kumamoto Quake Victims Remembered after 9 Years

Kumamoto, April 14 (Jiji Press)--More than 270 victims in huge earthquakes that particularly hit hard Kumamoto Prefecture nine years ago were remembered in the southwestern Japan prefecture's capital on Monday.

In a memorial service held at the disaster prevention center adjacent to the prefectural government's head office in the city of Kumamoto, the 21 participants including bereaved family members observed a minute of silence and paid floral tribute.

"We are determined to further disaster prevention and reduction measures to make Kumamoto safer to live," Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in his address at the event.

Since last year, the Kumamoto government has refrained from asking representatives of the victims' families to deliver eulogies so as not to put excessive pressure on them. Meanwhile, it offered for the first time an opportunity for those families to get acquainted with each other before the ceremony.

Monday marked the ninth anniversary of a 6.5-magnitude earthquake that measured the maximum seismic intensity of 7 on the Japanese scale in the Kumamoto town of Mashiki on April 14, 2016. The foreshock was followed by the 7.3-magnitude main temblor, which registered the same intensity score in Mashiki and the nearby village of Nishihara, two days later. The quakes and aftershocks have directly and indirectly resulted in 278 deaths, including two indirect cases identified recently, in Kumamoto and neighboring Oita Prefecture.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]