KUMAMOTO, Japan — More than 1,000 people are still living in evacuation shelters in Japan's Kumamoto Prefecture three months after a powerful earthquake struck the region, as the prefectural government released a draft restoration and reconstruction plan aimed at helping residents rebuild their lives, Kyodo News reported on Wednesday, October 28.
The magnitude-7.1 earthquake struck at around 4:27 p.m. on July 28 and registered the maximum intensity of 7 on Japan's shindo seismic scale, Jiji Press reported. Evacuation centres remain open at 21 locations across seven cities and towns, with 579 evacuees in Yatsushiro, 263 in Uki, 155 in Hikawa and 65 in Uto, according to Kyodo. The total number of casualties stood at 420, Kyodo said.
The number of evacuees temporarily exceeded 10,000 at the peak and has since fallen to around one-tenth of that figure, Jiji reported, adding that 2,685 people had moved into temporary housing as of Friday. Publicly funded demolition of damaged houses began last month, but as of October 21 only one house had been removed, Jiji said, underlining how slowly physical reconstruction is moving.
A roadmap through fiscal 2028
The draft plan released on Tuesday sets a roadmap extending through fiscal 2028, focusing on restoring livelihoods and rebuilding social infrastructure, and includes measures to provide temporary housing as quickly as possible, Kyodo reported. Japanese reporting summarised by Particle News put the target at about 1,500 temporary housing units to be finished by December, with public demolitions and disaster-waste processing to be completed by December 2027.
"We want to steadily advance new, creative reconstruction that is full of hope for the disaster-stricken areas," Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said, according to Jiji Press.
A joint survey of 120 shelter residents found 75% said they could not see a way out of the shelters, citing damaged homes and lack of access to temporary housing as the main reasons, according to the reporting summarised by Particle News. The plan also promises a review of shelter operations by March 2028, covering problems exposed by this disaster such as rules for pets and care for elderly people living alone.
Recovery is uneven on the ground. Infrastructure restoration is only halfway finished and there is still no prospect of restoring wells in Yatsushiro, where the city had received 3,690 consultations by October 13, many about lack of running water, and faces a shortage of plumbers, Jiji reported. About 380 people had left their jobs because of the disaster as of October 16, and the Kumamoto Labor Bureau had received about 4,200 consultations. Kyodo noted the plan adds new tsunami countermeasures amid concern that a fault segment extending offshore near the epicentre did not rupture during the quake. All railways damaged by the earthquake have been restored.
Kumamoto's experience is closely watched across Japan, a country where major earthquakes repeatedly test how fast temporary housing, demolition and livelihood support can reach displaced residents. Wednesday marked exactly three months since the July 28 disaster.