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An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 with the epicenter at the depth of 14 kilometers
under the northern part of Awaji Island occurred at 5 :46 a.m on January 17,
1995. The level-VI of the seismic intensity scale of the Japan Meteorological
Agency was recorded on this earthquake at the Kobe Marine Observatory. After
the occurrence of the earthquake, the Japan Meteorological Agency conducted
field surveys on the damage and made a judgment that a very disastrous earthquake
of the seismic intensity of 7 had occurred in an area of the northern part of
Awaji Island, the belt area ranging from Suma-ward of Kobe City to the southern
part of Nishinomiya City, and part of Takarazuka City (Fig.
1). The seismic intensity of 7 was newly established after the Fukui Earthquake
in 1948 and it is the first time an earthquake of this seismic intensity was
observed.
As the earthquake occurred just under the city area, the damages were so
immense that more than 5,500 people were killed, 41,5OO people were injured
and totally collapsed houses were more than 1OO,OOO. The earthquake assumed
almost an unprecedented serious aspect of combined damages in a large city consisting
of fall railway bridges girders, occurrence of liquefaction on a large scale
mainly on artificial islands and disruption of life lines which support city
functions. As a disaster caused by an earthquake in this century in Japan, this
has been second only to the Great Kanto Earthquake which occurred in September
1923.
The Japan Meteorological Agency named this earthquake the "Southern Hyogo
Prefecture Earthquake, 1995" and the government, in consideration of the extremely
large scale of damage as well as future necessity for using a uniform name for
promotion of restoration and reconstruction, decided to call this disaster as
the "Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake Disaster". The gross amount of damage caused
by the earthquake was estimated by the National Land Agency at 9,600 billion
yen, of which the damages to the transport-related facilities such as railways
and port facilities amounted to 1,600 billion yen, accounting for approximately
more than 17% of the total damage.
Of the transport-related damage, the damage to railways is estimated at
255 billion yen and to port facilities at 1,040 billion yen
(Table 1).
(1) Railways
At lines total 13 railway companies including Sanyo Shinkansen, JR West,
Hankyu, Hanshin Electric Railway, etc. the earthquake caused such serious damage
as the fall of elevated railway bridges, damages or destruction of tunnels and
station buildings, etc. For the serious damage, the sections in which the operation
could not be resumed on the day of the earthquake amounted to a total 638 kilometers
consisting of 219 kilometers of Shinkansen line between Kyoto and Okayama, 123
kilometers of conventional lines and 296 kilometers of private railway lines.
(Picture. 1)
(2) Ports and coasts
Damage was caused to facilities at 24 ports in Hyogo, Osaka and Tokushima
Prefectures.
Especially at Kobe Port, except three earthquake-resistant quay-walls, most
of facilities such as container berths at the Port Island and Rokko Island districts
were hit so seriously by the earthquake that they could not be used (Picture.
2). Breakwaters subsided by a maximum of 2 meters and their function was
extremely lowered.
A total of approximately 42.5 kilometers of coastal dikes were damaged in
Hyogo, Osaka and Tokushima prefectures.
Elevated dock roads at ports such as Maya Big Bridge and light-weight automated
guided transit of the Port Island and Rokko Island lines suffered, like railways
and expressways, damages to piers and distortion of bases.
Furthermore, a subsidence of a maximum of approximately 0.5 meters occurred
at the central part of Port Island and the surface of roads at most of Port
Island and Rokko Island was covered by mud in several 10 centimeters and the
function of these roads was extremely impeded.
(3) Roads
Such principal highways as the Chugoku Expressway, Hanshin Expressway Kobe
Route, Wangan Route and National Highway No. 2 and 43 became snarled.
(4) Road transport facilities
For bus, damage was caused to garages, business offices, terminals, etc.
of 32 enterprises in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures as well as to 172 vehicles
of 18 enterprises. Regarding taxis, 520 business offices, 160 garages and approximately
760 vehicles suffered damage.
Truck transport companies in 1,183 suffered damages of fall or destruction
of garages, facilities such as business offices and vehicles.
(5) Airports
At Osaka International Airport, such damages as cracks on runways and taxiways
and collapse of outer walls of passenger terminal building occurred. At Kansai
International Airport, cracks were caused to walls of the passenger terminal
building, railway station, and the multi-story parking garage but the damage
did not interfere with the airline services.
(6) Harbor Transport facilities, warehouses, shipbuilding-related facilities
and others
Damage at Kobe Port was that to operational facilities such as warehouses,
material handling machines, etc. used by harbor transport companies at the port.
For warehousing facilities, the collapse of building and the cargoes being crashed
occurred mainly at the coastal part of the port and 62 buildings of Class I
to 3 warehouses amounting to 261 thousand square meters and 19 refrigeration
warehouses amounting to 395 thousand cubic meters were totally or partially
destroyed.
Regarding the shipbuilding-related facilities, many buildings collapsed
and factory equipment was damaged, in addition to cranes, falling subsidence
of quay-walls, damage to ships under construction or docked, fall from building
slips, etc.
At hotels in Kobe city, there were interruptions of life line, damage to
facilities for services, which made many hotels unable to continue service.
(1) Effects on human movement
A. Railways
(i) Passengers carried immediately after the earthquake
The Shinkansen line between Kyoto and Okayama was interrupted immediately
after the, earthquake. The section between Himeji and Okayama (89 km) was recovered
on January 18 and the section between Kyoto and Shin-Osaka (39 km) on January
20. However, the section between Shin-Osaka and Himeji (92 km) was suspended
until April 7 and approximately 110 thousand passengers per day on the up and
down lines were affected. This is approximately 71% of the average number of
passengers per day, which was approximately 160 thousand in fiscal 1994, carried
on the whole line of the Sanyo Shinkansen line (between Shin-Osaka and Hakata,
623 km).
On conventional lines of JR and lines of private railway companies, the
sections which could not be recovered on the day of the occurrence of the earthquake
mounted to approximately 419 km including the section between Amagasaki and
Himeji (80 km) on the JR Tokaido and Sanyo line, whole Kobe line (32 km) of
Hankyu and whole main line (32 km) of Hanshin Electric Train and approximately
5.8 million people were affected. As of the end of January, effects remained
on approximately 2.5 million people with a total of approximately 93 km of interrupted
lines on the JR Tokaido line (between Ashiya and Kobe, 14 km), which is an artery
of railway traffic between Kobe and Osaka, Kobe line of Hankyu (between Nishinomiya
Kitaguchi and Sannomiya, 17 km) and Hanshin Electric Railway (between Aoki and
Motomachi, 10 km) (Fig. 2).
In terms of the total railways, the passengers who were affected accounted
for approximately 17% of the total passengers in the Kinki District and about
4% of the total passengers in Japan.
(b) Recovery of passengers carried in accordance with rehabilitation
The number of passengers carried by JR Central and JR West showed a decrease
in the period from January to March 1995 compared with the same period of the
preceding year due to the interruption on the Tokaido line and Sanyo Shinkansen
line. However, in and after April when the restoration of the all sections has
been realized, the number of passengers carried increased compared with the
preceding year and no effect of the earthquake can be seen any more (Fig.
3).
The number of passengers carried by private railway companies such as Hankyu
and Hanshin Electric Railway decreased greatly due to the interruption of lines.
Even after June when all lines of these two companies have been resumed, the
number of passengers has not fully recovered due to the decrease of population
living along these two companies' lines and the shift of passengers to JR lines.
In September, the total passengers carried on the lines of these two companies
accounted for only 91.3% of the same month of the preceding year and the effect
of the earthquake has been prolonged (Fig.
3).
(ii) Air
The number of domestic passengers nation wide increased by as high as 20.1%
in March compared to the same month of the preceding year, as the service of
temporary flights continued until the middle of April mainly on Tokyo-Hiroshima
and Osaka-Fukuoka routes which fly over Osaka and Kobe. The number of passengers
departing and arriving at Osaka International Airport and Kansai International
Airport showed a great increase of 25.7% in March compared to the same month
of the preceding year, which is partly attributable to a large number of increase
of flights realized by the opening of Kansai International Airport on June 9,
1994. However, since the resumption of full operation on the Sanyo Shinkansen
line(April 8), the number of passengers by air has normalized (Fig.
3).
The increase in international passengers departing and arriving at Osaka
International Airport and Kansai International Airport showed a great slow down
due to the effect of so-called "refraining from going out" in the period from
February to April compared with the increase in January of 46.0% compared to
the same month of the preceding year. However, the increase has recovered smoothly
after May and recorded an increase of 72.8% in August compared with the same
month of the previous year (Fig. 3).
On a national basis the effect of this "refraining from going out" appeared
definitely and the number of passengers in February decreased to 97.4% of the
same month of the previous year, which was the sole decrease since September
1993. The number of passengers showed a low increase rate in March and April
as well. However, it then started recovering gradually and in July showed an
increase of 15.8% compared to the same month of the preceding year, with no
more effect of the damage by the earthquake left.
(iii) Motor vehicle traffic
Bus services stopped on almost all lines in Kobe immediately after the earthquake.
The volume of passenger traffic by bus in Kobe in January decreased to 83.0%
of the same month of the preceding year due to effects of damages and destruction
of roads by the earthquake. It has been slowly recovering but still remained
at 95.4% in August compared to the same month of the preceding year (Fig.
3).
The number of passengers carried by taxi in Hyogo Prefecture recorded 61.5%
in February compared to the same month of the preceding year and still remained
at 86.6% in August compared to the same month of the previous year. The effect
of the earthquake has been prolonged for taxi.
(iv) Marine traffic
There are many services of ferry, passenger boats and high-speed boats from
Kobe Port to Awaji Island, Shikoku and Kyushu and almost all of these services
were forced to suspend temporarily. However, emergency restoration of port facilities
made it possible to resume some services at an early stage. Furthermore, services
were maintained by temporary cancellation of calls at Kobe Port and temporary
change of the home port or the terminal port from Kobe Port to Osaka Port or
other ports.
While there were some exceptions of increase of passengers carried by shift
of passengers from railways, the number of passengers by ferries decreased mainly
on Kobe-related lines such as between Awaji Island and Kobe, Tokushima and Kobe,
etc. The number of passengers carried on 26 lines of ferries which have made
Osaka and Kobe ports home port or terminal port was 84.4% in January compared
to the same month of the preceding year and it decreased greatly to less than
65% in the period from February to July compared to the same period of the preceding
year. It remained at 73.0% in August compared to the same month of the preceding
year and the effect of the earthquake has been prolonged (Fig.
3).
(2) Effects on physical distribution
(i) Railways and trucks
In terms of the total volume of freight traffic going through Hyogo Prefecture,
the volume by railways is only slightly over lO% of the volume of freight traffic
by trucks. The situation of freight traffic after the earthquake was as follows.
Before the earthquake, the volume of container traffic by JR Freight on
the section between Ashiya and Kobe (14 km) on the Tokaido Line, which was interrupted
as of the end of January, was a total of 4,800 containers per day for the up
and down lines when converted into 12 feet containers. After the earthquake,
the actual volume of traffic decreased to approximately 8% of the pre-earthquake
volume in January and approximately 37% in March.
Regarding trucking, it is estimated that cargoes exceeding 550 thousand
tons per day suffered such effects as great delay immediately after the earthquake
due to destruction of roads on express ways and national highways, and it is
estimated that, on a national basis, a maximum of approximately more than 3.5%
of the volume of cargo transported by trucking was affected by the earthquake.
The volume of cargoes by general trucks starting or terminating in Hyogo
Prefecture in January 1995 was 85.8% compared to the same month of the preceding
year but the volume has increased in the period from May to July compared to
the same period of the preceding year (Fig.
5).
(ii) Marine traffic and ports
The value of international trade at Kobe Port was approximately 7,130 billion
yen (approximately 11% of the Japan's total trade) in 1993. Especially, the
cargo volume of foreign trade liners was 43,140 thousand tons, of which container
cargoes accounted for 39,810 thousand tons or 2.5 million TEU (approximately
30% of the Japan's total container cargoes) and Kobe Port is the largest in
terms of these volumes of cargoes (Table
2).
As damage or destruction of quay-walls and materials handling machines by
the earthquake caused an overall interruption of handling of container cargo
at Kobe Port, oceangoing vessel companies unloaded containers destined for Kobe
Port at other ports as an emergency measure. For this, in neighboring areas
of Osaka Port, as an example, traffic jams at the container terminal and surrounding
roads were caused and parking space became insufficient.
The value of exports from Kobe Port in February was reduced to 20.5% of
that of the same month of the previous year and the value of imports to less
than 30% in the period from February to April compared to the same period of
the preceding year. While, in accordance with the rehabilitation of the port,
the value of exports has recovered rapidly to 80.5% and the value of imports
to 78.0% in September compared to the same month of the preceding year, the
effects of the earthquake still remain (Fig.
3).
By items, approximately 70 to 80% of the textile industry products, threads
and semi-finished spun products exported from Japan and 50 to 60% of imports
of these products into Japan are made through Kobe Port. It is assumed that
the lowered functions of Kobe Port caused by the earthquake would have substantial
effects on the distribution of textile products.
As Kobe Port serves a wide area, it is assumed that effects of the earthquake
have been exerted on a wide range of areas, mainly in western Japan (Table
3).
Furthermore, the paralyzed functions of Kobe Port affected not only Japan
but also other Asian countries. As an example, some of enterprises in those
countries had to stop temporarily their production lines or change suppliers
of parts.
(iii) Air
Due to the shift from land transport caused by the interruption of railways
and collapse of expressways as well as the increased demand for transport of
emergency goods, the total Japanese domestic cargo transport increased by 25.00/0'
in January compared to the same month of the preceding year. The domestic cargoes
starting and arriving at Osaka International Airport and Kansai International
Airport increased by 8.2% in March compared to the same month of the preceding
year. However, with the recovery of land transport, it has returned to the usual
level of transport after April (Fig.
3).
In addition to a substantial increase of international cargoes owing to
the establishment of new routes by the opening of Kansai International Airport,
shifts of transport of automotive parts and others from marine transport to
air contributed to increasing the volume of international air cargoes departing
and arriving at Osaka International Airport and Kansai International Airport
by more than 100% in February and March compared to the same months in the preceding
year. The increase in the period from April to July was by 70 to 80% compared
to the same period of the preceding month (Fig.
3).
(iv) Warehousing
In accordance with the lowering of port functions at Kobe Port, the in-warehouse
volume in February in Kobe City was only 19.5% of that of the same month of
the preceding year for the ordinary warehouses and 14.8% for the refrigeration
warehouses. In August, the in-warehouse volume and the balance of storage as
of the end of month recovered to respectively 63.9% and 78.6% for the ordinary
warehouses and 88.0% and 91.0% for the refrigeration warehouses.
(3) Effects on tourism
According to a survey by Kobe City, the number of tourists per month visited
Kobe was only 5% in February compared to the same month of the preceding year
and 4% in March. The tourist industry was almost in a state of complete collapse.
While it has been in a process of gradual recovery since April, the number of
tourists in August still remained at 45% of the number in the same month of
the preceding year and effects of the earthquake drag on (Fig.
4).
The value of domestic tourism handled by leading travel companies all over
Japan decreased in February to 92.4% of the same month of the preceding year
and continuously recorded the decrease in the period from January to May compared
to the same period of the same year compared to the preceding year because of
the decrease of tourists visiting peripheries areas of the stricken area as
well as the "refraining from going out" which was observed on a nation-wide
scale. In June, however, the value recovered to show a 2.0% increase compared
to the same month of the preceding year. The value of overseas tourism was also
affected by the earthquake as it dropped in February to 95.0% of the value of
the same month of the preceding year. The value, however, started showing an
increase since April compared to the same month of the preceding year and the
effect of "refraining from going out" has disappeared.
Hotels in Osaka City which have hardly been hit directly by the earthquake
increased the rate of operation to 90.9% in February (increase of 22.3 points
compared to that of February of the preceding year) but the rate was lowered
to the normal level in April (an increase of 2.3 points compared to the same
month of the previous year).
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