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51-644: The Great Hanshin Earthquake occurred on January 17, 1995, at 05:46:53 JST (January 16 at 20:46:53 UTC ) in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture , Japan, including the region known as Hanshin . It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum intensity of 7 on the JMA Seismic Intensity Scale (XI–XII on the Modified Mercalli intensity scale ). The tremors lasted for approximately 20 seconds. The focus of

102-576: A big production center, the local economy recovered very quickly. Even though less than half the port facilities had been rebuilt by that stage, within a year import volumes through the port had recovered fully and export volumes were nearly back to where they would have been without the disaster. Less than 15 months after the earthquake, in March 1996, manufacturing activity in greater Kobe was at 98% of its projected pre-quake level. The fact that volunteers from all over Japan converged on Kobe to help victims of

153-645: A certain magnitude, which allowed them to deploy to the Niigata region within minutes. Control over fire response was likewise handed over from local fire departments to a central command base in Tokyo and Kyoto. In response to the widespread damage to transportation infrastructure, and the resulting effect on emergency response times in the disaster area, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport began designating special disaster prevention routes and reinforcing

204-565: A lesser extent. Those that were not constructed to these standards suffered serious structural damage, such as traditional houses which had heavy tiled roofs that could weigh as much as two tons, intended to resist the frequent typhoons plaguing Kobe, but were only supported by a light wooden frame. When these wood supports gave way, the roof would crush the unreinforced walls and floors in a pancake collapse . Newer homes have reinforced walls and lighter roofs to avoid this, but are thusly more susceptible to typhoons. The damage to highways and subways

255-463: A link that carried 40% of Osaka-Kobe road traffic. Half of the elevated expressway's piers sustained some damage. The entire route was not reopened until September 30, 1996. Three bridges on the less heavily used Route 2 were damaged, but the highway was reopened well ahead of Route 3 and served as one of the main intercity road links for a time. The Meishin Expressway was only lightly damaged, but

306-478: A major wake-up call for Japanese disaster prevention authorities. Japan installed rubber blocks under bridges to absorb the shock and rebuilt buildings further apart to prevent collateral damage. The national government changed its disaster response policies in the wake of the earthquake, and its response to the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake was significantly faster and more effective. The Ground Self-Defense Forces were given automatic authority to respond to earthquakes over

357-557: A new Western Standard Time ( 西部標準時 , Seibu Hyōjunji ) at 120° longitude as the time zone for the Japanese Miyako and Yaeyama Islands , as well as Taiwan and its Penghu Islands . While Korea came under Japanese rule in 1910, Korea Standard Time of GMT+08:30 continued to be used until 1912, when it was changed to Central Standard Time. Western Standard Time, which was used in Taiwan and some parts of Okinawa ,

408-553: A significant effort to introduce daylight saving time, but was ultimately unsuccessful. However, it is not clear that DST would conserve energy in Japan. A 2007 simulation estimated that introducing DST to Japan would increase energy use in Osaka residences by 0.13%, with a 0.02% saving due to lighting more than outweighed by a 0.15% increase due to cooling costs; the simulation did not examine non-residential buildings. On May 22, 2013,

459-608: Is 19:01, from 26 June to 1 July, despite being at 35°41'N latitude). Since 2000, a few local governments and commerce departments have promoted unmandated hour-earlier work schedule experiments during the summer without officially resetting clocks. The Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy of the Cabinet Office is expected to propose that the Japanese government begin studying DST in an attempt to help combat global warming . Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe made

510-409: Is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths ( mooring locations), and may also include piers , warehouses , or other facilities necessary for handling the ships. Wharves are often considered to be a series of docks at which boats are stationed. A marginal wharf

561-575: Is called The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster ( 阪神・淡路大震災 , Hanshin-Awaji Daishinsai ) , often shortened to The Great Hanshin Earthquake Disaster ( 阪神大震災 , Hanshin Daishinsai ) ( Hanshin refers to the area encompassing Osaka and Kobe). In the scientific literature the earthquake itself is called the 1995 Southern Hyōgo Prefecture Earthquake ( 平成7年(1995年)兵庫県南部地震 , Heisei 7 nen (1995 nen) Hyōgo-ken Nanbu Jishin ) ,

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612-476: Is connected to the shore along its full length. A wharf commonly comprises a fixed platform, often on pilings . Commercial ports may have warehouses that serve as interim storage: where it is sufficient a single wharf with a single berth constructed along the land adjacent to the water is normally used; where there is a need for more capacity multiple wharves, or perhaps a single large wharf with multiple berths, will instead be constructed, sometimes projecting over

663-782: Is decorated with arches of multicoloured lights that were donated by the Italian government. Amongst the commemorative events held on the anniversary of the earthquake, large "1.17" digits are illuminated in Higashi Yuenchi Park in the early hours of January 17 each year. Approximately 1.2 million volunteers were involved in relief efforts during the first three months following the earthquake. Retailers such as Daiei and 7-Eleven used their existing supply networks to provide necessities in affected areas, while NTT and Motorola provided free telephone service for victims. The organized crime Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate

714-409: Is particularly in favour of this movement because daylight starts as early as 03:30 (in standard time) there in summer due to its high latitude and its location near the eastern edge of the time zone, with much of the region's solar time actually closer to UTC+10:00. Because of this, the sun sets shortly after 19:00 in much of the eastern part of the country (in Tokyo, the latest sunset of the entire year

765-591: The Allied occupation of Japan . In 1952, three weeks before the occupation ended, the Japanese government, which had been granted increased powers, abolished daylight saving time, and the Allied occupation authorities did not interfere. Since then, DST has never been officially implemented nationwide in Japan. Starting in the late 1990s, a movement to reinstate DST in Japan gained some popularity, aiming at saving energy and increasing recreational time. The Hokkaido region

816-781: The Governor of Tokyo (then) Naoki Inose proposed a two-hour advance ( UTC+11 ) Japan Standard Time at an industry competitiveness conference. Its purpose is to enhance the influence of the Japanese financial market by starting early in the Tokyo financial market . The Japanese government has decided to consider this proposal. However, there has been no specific discussion of this proposal for more than ten years. （明治十九年七月十三日勅令第五十一号） Quay A wharf ( pl.   wharves or wharfs ), quay ( / k iː / kee , also / k eɪ , k w eɪ / k(w)ay ), staith , or staithe

867-478: The Meiji era (1868–1912), each local region had its own time zone in which noon was when the sun was exactly at its culmination . As modern transportation methods, such as trains, were adopted, this practice became a source of confusion. For example, there is a difference of about 5 degrees longitude between Tokyo and Osaka and because of this, a train that departed from Tokyo would arrive at Osaka 20 minutes behind

918-597: The staith spelling as a distinction from simple wharves: for example, Dunston Staiths in Gateshead and Brancaster Staithe in Norfolk . However, the term staith may also be used to refer only to loading chutes or ramps used for bulk commodities like coal in loading ships and barges. Quay , on the other hand, has its origin in the Proto-Celtic language . Before it changed to its current form under influence of

969-628: The 1995 earthquake had a strike-slip mechanism that accommodated east–west shortening of the Eurasian plate due to its collision with the Philippine Sea plate in central Honshu . The Mj 7.3 earthquake struck at 05:46:53 JST on the morning of January 17, 1995. It lasted for 20 seconds. During this time the south side of the Nojima Fault moved 1.5 meters to the right and 1.2 meters downwards. There were four foreshocks , beginning with

1020-423: The 20th century after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake , which claimed more than 105,000 lives. Most of the largest earthquakes in Japan are caused by subduction of the Philippine Sea plate or Pacific plate , with mechanisms that involve either energy released within the subducting plate or the accumulation and sudden release of stress in the overlying plate. Earthquakes of these types are especially frequent in

1071-642: The Osaka-Kobe railway tracks were operational. Daikai Station on the Kobe Rapid Railway line collapsed, bringing down part of National Route 28 above it. Wooden supports collapsed inside supposedly solid concrete pilings under the tracks of the Shinkansen high-speed rail line, causing the entire line to shut down. The railways rebounded quickly after the quake, reaching 80% operability in one month. The Kobe Municipal Subway resumed operation

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1122-755: The Republic of Ireland, and may also refer to neighbourhoods and roadways running along the wayside (for example, Queen's Quay in Toronto and Belfast ). The term wharf is more common in the United States. In some contexts wharf and quay may be used to mean pier , berth , or jetty . In old ports such as London (which once had around 1700 wharves ) many old wharves have been converted to residential or office use. Certain early railways in England referred to goods loading points as "wharves". The term

1173-470: The affected areas. People were forced to wait in corridors due to the overcrowding and lack of space. Some people had to be operated on in waiting rooms and corridors. To help speed the recovery effort, the government closed most of the Hanshin Expressway network to private vehicles from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm daily and limited traffic to buses, taxis and other designated vehicles. To keep

1224-453: The buildings in the worst-hit areas were completely destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. About 22% of the offices in Kobe's central business district were rendered unusable, and over half of the houses in that area were deemed unfit for occupancy. Although some were destroyed and others suffered severe damage, high-rise buildings that were built in compliance with the 1981 building code suffered to

1275-541: The cities of Kobe , Ashiya , Nishinomiya and Takarazuka . Tremors were valued at seismic intensity of Levels 4 to 6 at observation points in Kansai , Chūgoku , Shikoku and Chūbu regions: Damage was widespread and severe. Structures irreparably damaged by the earthquake included nearly 400,000 buildings, numerous elevated road and rail bridges, and 120 of the 150 quays in the port of Kobe. The quake triggered approximately 300 fires, which raged over large portions of

1326-460: The city. Disruptions of water, electricity and gas supplies were common. Residents feared returning home because of aftershocks that lasted several days (74 of which were strong enough to be felt). The majority of deaths (over 4,000) occurred in cities and suburbs in Hyōgo Prefecture . A total of 68 children under the age of 18 were orphaned, while 332 children lost one parent. One in five of

1377-419: The coastal regions of northeastern Japan. The Great Hanshin earthquake belonged to a third type, called an "inland shallow earthquake". Earthquakes of this type occur along active faults . Even at lower magnitudes, they can be very destructive because they often occur near populated areas and because their hypocenters are located less than 20 km below the surface. The Great Hanshin earthquake began north of

1428-522: The collapsed structures were constructed properly according to the building codes in force in the 1960s. The steel-reinforcement specifications in the 1960s regulations had already been discovered to be inadequate and revised several times, the latest revision being in 1981, which proved effective but only applied to new structures . Ten spans of the Kobe Route elevated expressway were knocked over in three locations across Kobe and Nishinomiya, blocking

1479-503: The day after the earthquake with limited service between Seishin-Chuo and Itayado stations (along with the Hokushin Kyuko Electric Railway between Tanigami and Shin-Kobe ). Service resumed across the entire line on February 16, 1995, with full service resuming a month later after repairs were completed. Trains continued to operate with speed restrictions until July 21, 1995. Artificial islands, such as

1530-435: The earthquake was located 17 km beneath its epicenter , on the northern end of Awaji Island , 20 km away from the center of the city of Kobe . At least 5,000 people died as a result of this earthquake; about 4,600 of them were from Kobe. Among major cities, Kobe, with its population of 1.5 million, was the closest to the epicenter and hit by the strongest tremors. This was Japan's second deadliest earthquake in

1581-419: The epicenter, and because it was built to the latest standards. The Akashi Kaikyō Bridge , under construction near the earthquake's epicenter, was undamaged but was reportedly lengthened by a full meter due to horizontal displacement along the activated tectonic fault. Outside Japan the earthquake and disaster are commonly referred to as the Kobe earthquake; in Japan, the earthquake and the disaster caused by it

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1632-487: The first to open in the world at any given time. The two-time-zone system was implemented in Japan between January 1896 and September 1937: From October 1937, Central Standard Time was also used in western Okinawa and Taiwan. The IANA time zone database contains one zone for Japan in the file zone.tab , named Asia/Tokyo . From 1948 to 1952, Japan observed daylight saving time (DST) between May and September every year. The United States imposed this policy as part of

1683-506: The island of Awaji, which lies just south of Kobe. It spread toward the southwest along the Nojima Fault on Awaji and toward the northeast along the Suma and Suwayama faults, which run through the center of Kobe. Observations of deformations in these faults suggest that the area was subjected to east–west compression, which is consistent with previously known crustal movements. Like other earthquakes recorded in western Japan between 1891 and 1948,

1734-688: The largest (Mj 3.7) at 18:28 on the previous day. It was the first time that an earthquake in Japan was officially measured at a seismic intensity ( shindo in Japanese) of the highest Level 7 on the scale of Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). After the earthquake, seismic intensity observation in Japan was fully mechanized (from April 1996) and JMA seismic intensity Levels 5 and 6 were each divided into 2 levels (from October 1996). An on-the spot investigation by JMA concluded that tremors by this earthquake were at seismic intensity of Level 7 in particular areas in northern Awaji Island (now Awaji City ) and in

1785-417: The light rail system running even though it had quite severely damaged sections, shuttle buses were commissioned to transfer patrons to stations around damaged sections. Japan Standard Time Japan Standard Time is equivalent to Korean Standard Time , Pyongyang Time ( North Korea ), Eastern Indonesia Standard Time , East-Timorese Standard Time , Palau Time , and Yakutsk Time ( Russia ). Before

1836-439: The modern Rokkō Island and especially Port Island in Kobe, suffered severe subsidence due to liquefaction . Water breaking through the surface and flooding those islands was initially believed to have seeped in from the sea, but in fact had been forced out of the soil used to build the islands. The newly completed artificial island supporting Kansai International Airport was not significantly affected, due it being further from

1887-538: The name given to it by the Japan Meteorological Agency the week after the main shock. The quake ravaged many of the facilities of what was then the world's sixth-largest container port and the source of nearly 40% of Kobe's industrial output. The sheer size of the earthquake caused a major decline in Japanese stock markets, with the Nikkei 225 index plunging by 1,025 points on the day following

1938-793: The northeast and east of England the term staith or staithe (from the Norse for landing stage) is also used. The two terms have historically had a geographical distinction: those to the north in the Kingdom of Northumbria used the Old English spelling staith , southern sites of the Danelaw took the Danish spelling staithe . Both originally referred to jetties or wharves. In time, the northern coalfields of Northumbria developed coal staiths specifically for loading coal onto ships and these would adopt

1989-560: The quake was an important event in the history of volunteerism in Japan. The year 1995 is often regarded as a turning point in the emergence of volunteerism as a major form of civic engagement. In December 1995, the government declared January 17 a national "Disaster Prevention and Volunteerism Day", and the week from January 15 to 21 a national "Disaster Prevention and Volunteerism Week", to be commemorated with lectures, seminars, and other events designed to encourage voluntary disaster preparedness and relief efforts. The earthquake proved to be

2040-439: The quake. This financial damage was the immediate cause for the collapse of Barings Bank due to the actions of Nick Leeson , who had speculated vast amounts of money on Japanese and Singaporean derivatives. Discussions of Japan's " Lost Decade " tend towards purely economic analysis, and neglect the impact of the earthquake on the Japanese economy which at the time was already suffering from recession. Despite this devastation in

2091-554: The roads and surrounding buildings so as to keep them as intact as possible in the event of another earthquake. Hyōgo's prefectural government invested millions of yen in the following years to build earthquake-proof shelters and supplies in public parks. The Kobe Luminarie is an event held for approximately two weeks every December. A street leading from the Daimaru store in Motomachi to Higashi Yuenchi Park (next to Kobe city hall)

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2142-556: The second Saturday in September at 24:00 (with the exception of 1949, when the spring forward transition was the first Saturday in April at 24:00). More recently there have been efforts to restore daylight saving time in Japan but these have not succeeded. In May 2013, former Tokyo governor Naoki Inose proposed permanently moving the country's time zone ahead by 2 hours to better align global markets and make Japan's stock market to be

2193-428: The third says the standard time zone would be in effect from 1888. The city of Akashi in Hyōgo Prefecture is located exactly on 135 degrees east longitude and subsequently became known as Toki no machi (Town of Time). With the annexation of Taiwan in 1895, Ordinance 167 (pictured on the right) was issued to rename the previous Standard Time to Central Standard Time ( 中央標準時 , Chūō Hyōjunji ) and establish

2244-492: The time in Tokyo. In 1886, Ordinance 51 was issued in response to this problem, which stated: Ordinance 51 (on the precise calculation of time using the Prime Meridian) – July 13, 1886 According to this, the standard time ( 標準時 , hyōjunji ) was set 9 hours ahead of GMT (UTC had not been established yet). In the ordinance, the first clause mentions GMT, the second defines east longitude and west longitude and

2295-517: The water. A pier, raised over the water rather than within it, is commonly used for cases where the weight or volume of cargos will be low. Smaller and more modern wharves are sometimes built on flotation devices ( pontoons ) to keep them at the same level as the ship, even during changing tides. In everyday parlance the term quay (pronounced 'key') is common in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and many other Commonwealth countries, and

2346-457: Was abolished by Ordinance 529 in 1937 and replaced by Central Standard Time in those areas. Territories occupied by Japan during World War II, including Singapore and Malaya , adopted Japan Standard Time for the duration of their occupation, but reverted after Japan's surrender . Between 1948 and 1951 occupied Japan observed daylight saving time (DST) from the first Saturday in May at 24:00 to

2397-582: Was actively involved in the relief effort from the beginning, distributing substantial amounts of food and supplies to needy victims. Aid provided by the Yamaguchi-gumi was particularly crucial in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, due to the failure of the Japanese government to organize effective relief to the area initially. Local hospitals struggled to keep up with demand for medical treatment, largely due to collapsed or obstructed "lifelines" (roads) that kept supplies and personnel from reaching

2448-719: Was carried over from marine usage. The person who was resident in charge of the wharf was referred to as a "wharfinger". The word wharf comes from the Old English hwearf , cognate to the Old Dutch word werf , which both evolved to mean "yard", an outdoor place where work is done, like a shipyard ( Dutch : scheepswerf ) or a lumberyard (Dutch: houtwerf ). Originally, werf or werva in Old Dutch ( werf , wer in Old Frisian ) simply referred to inhabited ground that

2499-417: Was closed during the day until February 17, 1995, so that emergency vehicles could easily access the hardest-hit areas to the west. It was not until July 29 that all four lanes were opened to traffic along one section. Many surface highways were clogged for some time due to the collapse of higher-capacity elevated highways. Most railways in the region were damaged. In the aftermath of the earthquake, only 30% of

2550-461: Was not yet built on (similar to " yard " in modern English), or alternatively to a terp . This could explain the name Ministry Wharf located at Saunderton, just outside High Wycombe, which is nowhere near any body of water. In support of this explanation is the fact that many places in England with "wharf" in their names are in areas with a high Dutch influence, for example the Norfolk broads. In

2601-483: Was the most graphic image of the earthquake, and images of the collapsed elevated Kobe Route of the Hanshin Expressway appeared on front pages of newspapers worldwide. Most people in Japan believed those structures to be relatively safe from earthquake damage because of the steel-reinforced concrete design. Although the initial belief was that construction had been negligent, it was later shown that most of

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