A total of 68 children under the age of 18 were orphaned, while 332 children lost one parent.[15]. This region is the second most populated area after Tokyo, with a population of 10 million. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum intensity of 7 on the JMA Seismic Intensity Scale (X on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale). People were forced to wait in corridors due to the overcrowding and lack of space. 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. The Kobe Luminarie is an event held for approximately two weeks every December. The earthquake's destructiveness was due to its relatively shallow depth rather than magnitude, seismologists said yesterday. The Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake was not only powerful (7.2 magnitude on the Richter scale), but with the epicentre only 20 km southwest of the city, it resulted in massive damage to property and loss of life. The 1995 Kobe earthquake (known as the Great Hanshin” earthquake in Japan) hit Japan on Tuesday the 17th of January at 5:40 am. It proved the failure of most structures and wrecks electricity and water supplies for the firefighters to put out the blazes in Kobe City. More than 102,000 buildings were destroyed in Kobe, leaving over a fifth of the city population, some 300,000 people homeless. Outside Japan the earthquake is commonly known as the Kobe earthquake. 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. It was the worst earthquake in Japan since the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, which claimed 140,000 lives. The Hanshin region (the name is derived from the characters used to write Ōsaka and Kōbe) is Japan’s second largest urban area, with more than 11 million inhabitants; with the earthquake’s epicentre located as close as it was to such a densely populated area, the effects were overwhelming. The year 1995 is often regarded as a turning point in the emergence of volunteerism as a major form of civic engagement. Trains continued to operate with speed restrictions until July 21, 1995. Although the initial belief was construction had been negligent, it was later shown that most of the collapsed structures were constructed properly according to the building codes in force in the 1960s. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Water breaking through the surface and flooding those islands was initially believed to have seeped in from the sea, but in fact rose from the liquefied remains of once-solid soils used to construct the islands. Kobe, less than 15 miles from the epicenter, is a port city four or five miles wide and about 18 miles long and has a population of 1.5 million. The majority of deaths (over 4,000) occurred in cities and suburbs in Hyōgo Prefecture. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [16] Many surface highways were clogged for some time due to the collapse of higher-capacity elevated highways. The focusof the earthquake was loc… The 20 second earthquake caused the ground to move up to 50 centimetres horizontally and up to 1 meter vertically. The newly-completed artificial island supporting Kansai International Airport was not significantly affected, due to being further from the epicenter, and because it was built to the latest standards. In the aftermath of the earthquake, only 30% of the Osaka-Kobe railway tracks were operational. [17] 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. There were four foreshocks, beginning with the largest (Mj 3.7) at 18:28 on the previous day. The epicentre was located at Awaji Island and Arimoto is staggered. Hanshin refers to the region between Osaka and Kobe. The transportation network was completely paralyzed, and the inadequacy of national disaster preparedness was also exposed. It is called the “Kobe earthquake”, not because the epicentre of the earthquake was in the Japanese city of Kobe but because Kobe was very much hit the hardest. [9] Observations of deformations in these faults suggest that the area was subjected to east–west compression, which is consistent with previously known crustal movements. In Japan, the disaster by this earthquake is officially called The Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster (阪神・淡路大震災, Hanshin-Awaji Daishinsai), which is often shortened to The Great Hanshin Earthquake Disaster (阪神大震災, Hanshin Daishinsai). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. In the aftermath of the Kōbe disaster, roads, bridges, and buildings were reinforced against another earthquake, and the national government revised its disaster response policies (its response to the 2004 quake in Niigata prefecture was much faster and more effective). 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 the affected areas. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. The epicenter of the earthquake was 40 miles away from Kobe in the Akashi Straight between Awaji Island and Honshu. Earthquakes of these types are especially frequent in the coastal regions of northeastern Japan. The focus of the earthquake was located 16km beneath its epicentre on the northern end of Awaji Island, 20km from the city of Kobe. The epicenter of the Kobe earthquake was 34.6 N 135.0 E, Awajishima Island, 20 miles south of Kobe. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Kobe-earthquake-of-1995, Tokyo-Yokohama (Great Kantō) earthquake of 1923. whilst many of its citizens were still asleep, the Japanese city of Kobe was hit by largest earthquake in Japan since 1923. The entire route was not reopened until September 30, 1996. Some people had to be operated on in waiting rooms and corridors. The majority of the damage fell within the city limits and significantly affected industry and commerce. THE 1995 KOBE EARTHQUAKE •January 17, 1995 at 5:46 am •Magnitude 7.3 •Deaths: 6,434 (as of 2006/12/22) •250,000 houses destroyed •316,000 people evacuated •Damage cost estimated at US$100 billion •Most life-lines and urban facilities were destroyed and became unavailable Kobe city Osaka Tokyo Epicentre Map of Japan. One in five of the buildings in the worst-hit areas were completely destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. Thegranit-ic Rokko mountains rising behind Kobe City are known to produce high-quality Corrections? Kobe is Japan's 6th largest city with the world's 6th largest port. • The city of Kobe, with a population of 1.5 million, was the closest to the epicentre. The Kobe quake itself was more than 300 kilometres from a network of instruments scrutinising Japan’s most active tectonic area, near Tokyo. Scientists say the epicentre was 15 miles (24km) below the island of Awajisima, 20 miles (32km)from Kobe. The railways rebounded quickly after the quake, reaching 80% operability in one month. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Please also tell me if I'm right about how the earthquake occured; where the two plates meet (the fault line) the rock was pushing and forcing itself against eachother in opposite directions. It is the point on the surface nearest to the earthquake. Kobe 17 January The epicentre of the Kobe earthquake is where the star has been placed on the map and the focus was shallow meaning it was close to .Difference Between Earthquake Focus and the Epicenter? The fact that volunteers from all over Japan converged on Kobe to help victims of the quake was an important event in the history of volunteerism in Japan. Most people in Japan believed those structures to be relatively safe from earthquake damage because of the steel-reinforced concrete design. The epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface directly above the source, or focus, of the earthquake. On Tuesday, January 17th 1995, at 5.46 a.m. an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 on the Richter Scale struck Kobe. On this day 25 years ago, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck near Kobe, Japan, killing 6,433 people and causing more than $100 billion in damages. In the scientific literature it is often 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), the name chosen by the Japan Meteorological Agency in the week after the main shock. The tremors lasted for approximately 20 seconds. This was Japan's worst earthquake in the 20th century after the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, which claimed more than 105,000 lives. [24] To keep 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.[25]. It lasted about 20 seconds and registered as a magnitude 6.9 (7.3 on the Richter scale). [citation needed], Despite this devastation in a big production center, the local economy recovered very quickly. The Great Hanshin earthquake (阪神・淡路大震災, Hanshin Awaji daishinsai), or Kobe 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. Half of the elevated expressway's piers sustained some damage. I thought the epicentre was directly above the focus, which would've been under Kobe. During this time the south side of the Nojima Fault moved 1.5 meters to the right and 1.2 meters downwards. Although most of the buildings that had been constructed according to new building codes withstood the earthquake, many others, particularly older wood-frame houses, did not. E c o n o m i c S o c i a l E n v i r o n m e n t a l Primary effects 200,000 buildings collapsed. attershock zone, ami peak „ , . 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. Japan is one of the most geologic ally active regions on Earth, a place where four major tectonic plate s—the Eurasian, Philippine, Pacific, and North American—meet and interact. It was the first earthquake in Japan’s modern history whose epicentre was in a metropolitan area. In fact, the actual epicentre of the earthquake was in on the northern end of Awaji Island (fig. The epicentre of the earthquake was on the northern end of Awaji Island near Kobe, a cosmopolitan city of over 1.5 million people. [17], 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 the quake. The focus was a depth of 16km below the surface with an epicentre 20km away from Kobe. After recalculating the seismic design criteria required for a nuclear power plant to survive near the epicentre of a large earthquake the NSC concluded that under current guidelines such a plant could survive a quake of magnitude 7.75 (cf Kobe 7.2). Ban went to the city in February, and by the end of the summer his relief work had brought 22 paper-tube cabins to shelter some of those who had lost their homes and a “paper…. 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. It caused approximately ten trillion yen or $200 billion USD in damage, 2.5% of Japan's GDP at the time. [5] Among major cities, Kobe, with its population of 1.5 million, was the closest to the epicenter and hit by the strongest tremors. Artificial islands, such as the modern Rokkō Island and especially Port Island in Kobe, suffered severe subsidence due to liquefaction. The government was heavily criticized for its slow and ineffectual response, as well as its initial refusal to accept help from foreign countries. I thought the epicentre was directly above the focus, which would've been under Kobe. 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 the cities of Kobe, Ashiya, Nishinomiya and Takarazuka. Underground water pipes were broken by the tremors. [4] The tremors lasted for approximately 20 seconds. Macqarie Economics Research said that the epicentre of the latest earthquake was … For the first time in 4 centuries, a massive earthquake has struck the Kobe area. The tremors lasted for approximately 20 … 1 thoughts on “ Focus and epicenter diagram ” Sfc B. It wasn't until July 29 that all four lanes were opened to traffic along one section. Its estimated death toll of 6,400 made it the worst earthquake to hit Japan since the Tokyo-Yokohama (Great Kantō) earthquake of 1923, which had killed more than 140,000. The The Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake was not only powerful ( magnitude 6.9 ), but with the epicentre only 20km southwest of the city, it resulted in massive damage to property and loss of life. Those that were not constructed to these standards suffered serious structural damage. Structures irreparably damaged by the quake included nearly 400,000 buildings,[3][13] numerous elevated road and rail bridges, and 120 of the 150 quays in the port of Kobe. 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). The Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake was not only powerful (7.2 magnitude on the Richter scale), but with the epicentre only 20 km southwest of the city, it resulted in massive damage to property and loss of life. The Great Hanshin earthquake began north of the island of Awaji, which lies just south of Kobe. 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. On January 17, 1995, a major earthquake struck near the city of Kobe, Japan, killing more than 6,000 and making more than 45,000 people homeless. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. It lasted for 20 seconds. The Meishin Expressway was only lightly damaged, but was closed during the day until February 17, 1995 so that emergency vehicles could easily access the hardest-hit areas to the west. Approximately 1.2 million volunteers were involved in relief efforts during the first three months following the earthquake. 0.2 Kobe’s Nankin-machi Chinatown district, 2005 / xiv 0.3 Chinese ideogram for crisis / xvi 1.1 The Kobe environs, showing the epicentre of the Hanshin earthquake / 2 1.2 Devastation in Kobe and its environs / 2 1.3 Fires in Kobe / 3 1.4 Extent of the conflagrations in Kobe’s Nagata and Suma wards / 4 A street leading from the Daimaru store in Motomachi to Higashi Yuenchi Park (next to Kobe city hall) is decorated with arches of multicoloured lights that were donated by the Italian government. The quake triggered approximately 300 fires,[3] which raged over large portions of the city. "7-2(2)The 1995 Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake", CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021 (. The Great Hanshin earthquake (阪神・淡路大震災, Hanshin Awaji daishinsai), or Kobe 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. The Kobe Municipal Subway resumed operation 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). | Earthquakes and Platesshlriseky: earthquake diagram epicenter. 546am a 7.2 on the Richter Scale earthquake struck with an epicentre on the island called Awaji Island in Osaka Bay. 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 power of the shock waves decreases with distance from their source, so this means that the shock waves from the earthquake are strongest at the epicentre and have the potential to do most damage there. Restoring the infrastructure and areas while increasing the city’s redeveloping urban Due to its proximity to the epicenter, the city of Kobe―the sixth largest city of Japan with a population of 1.5 … Most of the older traditional houses had heavy tiled roofs which weighed around two tons, intended to resist the frequent typhoons plaguing Kobe, but they were only supported by a light wooden frame. Daikai Station on the Kobe Rapid Railway line collapsed, bringing down part of National Route 28 above it. The earthquake's destructiveness was due to its relatively shallow depth rather than magnitude, seismologists said yesterday. , ground .nouons of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, superimposed on a . 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. 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. Omissions? The earthquake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale. Start studying Geography GCSE Kobe and Sichuan Earthquake Case Study. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Building knocked off its foundation by the January 1995 earthquake in Kōbe, Japan. Kobe was very close to the epicentre of the earthquake Many fire engines ran out of water before the fires were put out. The Great Hanshin Earthquake Disaster of 1995 was one of the worst in Japan’s history, killing 6,433 people and causing more than $100 billion in damages. A total of 6,434 people, mainly in the city of Kobe, lost their lives. It was the worst earthquake in Japan since the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, which claimed 140,000 lives. It listed … 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. 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. Many of the city’s residents had been unaware of the chances of an earthquake taking place.The epicentre of the earthquake was located on the island of Awaji at 34.6 N 135.0 E. The earthquake had taken place because of a subduction zone on the plate margin. What happened to the Awaji island? [14] Disruptions of water, electricity and gas supplies were common. Shortly after the Kobe earthquake, we started collecting ground-water samples from Kobe in order to investigate possible changes in ground water. 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. …1995, following the January 17 Kōbe earthquake that devastated the Kōbe area in west-central Japan. Haven’t found the relevant content? The earthquake hit at 5:46 am on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 1995, in the southern part of Hyōgo prefecture, west-central Honshu. When the ground moved, some of the Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Japan remembers more than 6,400 victims of Kobe earthquake after 22 years", "A fault model of the 1995 Kobe earthquake derived from the GPS data on the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and other datasets", Hunt for tsunami orphans hampered, unprecedented, "The Great Hanshin Earthquake: Lessons for Niigata", "Restoration from the earthquake disaster – City planning based on the lessons learned from the disaster", "Earthquake Readiness: From Underground Stores to Satellite Monitoring", Great Hanshin Earthquake and the destruction of the infrastructure, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, The Medical and Public Health Response to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in Japan: A Case Study in Disaster Planning, Are People Insured Against Natural Disasters? Most railways in the region were damaged. Portions of the Hanshin Expressway linking Kōbe and Ōsaka also collapsed or were heavily damaged during the earthquake. Japan installed rubber blocks under bridges to absorb the shock and rebuilt buildings further apart to prevent collateral damage. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. The worst effected area was in the central part of Kobe, a region about 5km … "QUAKE IN JAPAN: GANGSTERS; Gang in Kobe Organizes Aid for People In Quake" – via NYTimes.com. I read the epicentre of the Great Hanshin Earthquake was in the Aawaji island, so why was Kobe so badly affected? [19], 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 the roads and surrounding buildings so as to keep them as intact as possible in the event of another earthquake. The ground shook for only 20 seconds but in that short time over 5,000 people died, over 300,000 people became homeless and damage was £100 billion was caused to roads, houses, factories and … Kōbe earthquake of 1995, also called Great Hanshin earthquake, Japanese in full Hanshin-Awaji Daishinsai (“Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake Disaster”), (Jan. 17, 1995) large-scale earthquake in the Ōsaka-Kōbe (Hanshin) metropolitan area of western Japan that was among the strongest, deadliest, and costliest to ever strike that country. The type of margin where the Philippine plate and the Eurasian plate meet is a destructive margin. Updates? 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. Kōbe was the hardest hit city with 4,571 fatalities, more than 14,000 injured, and more than 120,000 damaged structures, more than half of which were fully collapsed. Burning and collapsed buildings in Kōbe, Japan, after the January 1995 earthquake. Control over fire response was likewise handed over from local fire departments to a central command base in Tokyo and Kyoto. » The epicenter of the Kobe earthquake was located on the northern end of Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, approximately 20 km away from Kobe. Retrieved January 24, 2021. Several hospitals in the old part of Kobe were destroyed in the earthquake. Newer homes have reinforced walls and lighter roofs to avoid this, but are more susceptible to typhoons. The earthquake was notable for exposing the vulnerability of the infrastructure. The focus of 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. Because Kobe was the closest major city to the epicentre of the earthquake, it was hit by the strongest shock waves; the earthquake was felt less strongly in cities further away. And also, if Kobe is situated above the fault line and the plate borders, then how could the epicentre have occured in the neary island? Up to 6,434 people lost their lives; about 4,600 of them were from Kobe. It measured 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale and had a maximum intensity of 7 on the JMA Seismic Intensity Scale (X on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale). Kobe, Japan, 1995 (MEDC) On 17th January 1995, an earthquake struck Kobe, a heavily populated urban area in Japan. Kobe 17 January The epicentre of the Kobe earthquake is where the star has been placed on the map and the focus was shallow meaning it was close to .Difference Between Earthquake Focus and the Epicenter? Sterngold, James (January 22, 1995). [20] Hyōgo's prefectural government invested millions of yen in the following years to build earthquake-proof shelters and supplies in public parks.[21]. Evidence from the Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake in 1995, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Hanshin_earthquake&oldid=1014293955, CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from February 2015, All articles needing additional references, Articles containing Japanese-language text, Internal link templates linking to redirects, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 26 March 2021, at 08:06. [18], The earthquake proved to be a major wake-up call for Japanese disaster prevention authorities. Thls 15 the f,rst larSe set of Strong-motion data mclud map of active faults. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Authorities who had proclaimed the superior earthquake-resistance capabilities of Japanese construction were quickly proved wrong by the collapse of numerous supposedly earthquake-resistant buildings, rail lines, elevated highways, and port facilities in the Kōbe area. [22] 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.[23]. [6], 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. Kobe was largely affected, as the epicentre was only 30 km from the city centre. Damage was widespread and severe. The organized crime Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate was actively involved in the relief effort from the beginning, distributing substantial amounts of food and supplies to needy victims. Additionally, it caused approximately ten trillion yen in damage. | Earthquakes and Platesshlriseky: earthquake diagram epicenter. • According … The epicenter of the Kobe earthquake was 34.6 N 135.0 E, Awajishima Island, 20 miles south of Kobe. We collected commercialbottled waterwithas manydif-ferentbottlingdatesaspossible. [12], Tremors were valued at seismic intensity of Levels 4 to 6 at observation points in Kansai, Chūgoku, Shikoku and Chūbu regions:[12]. Main shock epicentre (JMA). Due to its proximity, it was the worst affected Japanese city. The Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake was not only powerful (magnitude 6.9), but with the epicentre only 20km southwest of the city, it resulted in massive damage to property and loss of life. More than 102,000 buildings were destroyed in Kobe, leaving over a fifth of the city population, some 300,000 people homeless. [7], The Great Hanshin earthquake belonged to a third type, called an "inland shallow earthquake". Its epicentre was the northern part of Awaji Island in the Inland Sea, 12.5 miles (20 km) off the coast of the port city of Kōbe; the quake’s focus was about 10 miles (16 km) below the earth’s surface. [10] Like other earthquakes recorded in western Japan between 1891 and 1948, 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.[11]. I well understand it. Grab a copy of our NEW encyclopedia for Kids! The Mj 7.3 earthquake struck at 05:46 JST on the morning of January 17, 1995. • Lasting for about 20 seconds, the earthquake led to 18 cm horizontal and 12 cm vertical movement of land. The damage to highways and subways 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. 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. 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