Ishikawa Prefecture Investigates Deaths of Elderly from “indirect causes” One Year After Noto Earthquake

By Barrier Free Japan, Jiji

January 5 2025

People on Wednesday 1st January 2025 renewed their commitment to revive the Noto Peninsula as they offered prayers for the victims of a massive earthquake that rocked the central Japan region exactly a year ago.

In Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, one of the areas on the peninsula severely damaged by the 7.6-magnitude quake, a memorial ceremony was held to mark the first anniversary of the disaster, with 445 participants observing a minute of silence at 4:10 p.m., the time the temblor occurred on Jan. 1, 2024.

The death toll from the New Year’s Day quake came to 504, including those who lost their lives due to indirect causes.

Concerns have been raised about the deaths of elderly people who died of “indirect causes” after they were evacuated, dying at care facilities. Jiji Press reported that as of Wednesday 25th December 2024 that:

“22 of 176 elderly evacuees from Ishikawa had died at elderly care facilities or elsewhere in Toyama, according to the Toyama Prefectural Government. In Aichi, 16 of 68 such evacuees died at care facilities or hospitals.”

Jiji went on to report that about “15% of elderly evacuees from care homes and hospitals in Ishikawa Prefecture affected by the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake to two other prefectures have died” and according to the Ishikawa government, the number of people who evacuated from local facilities and hospitals rose up to around 1,600.

One explanation offered for the deaths from “indirect causes” following the earthquake is the stress of long-distance travel and changes in living conditions may have affected the 38 evacuees who died in the prefectures of Aichi and Toyama. The Ishikawa Prefectural Government is investigating the effects of wide-area evacuations.

Hisayoshi Kondo, senior official of the National Hospital Organization’s disaster medical assistance team headquarters, who directed Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT)’s activities just after the temblor, said that evacuations were inevitable. But he described the high number of deaths as “severe.”

A major problem with wide-area evacuations is that welfare functions provided by family members and neighbors tended to be lost at the evacuation destinations, Kondo said.

He also stated that the absence of welfare services in the disaster-stricken areas often results in delays in reconstruction of such areas.

“Evacuations lead to misery,” he said. “We should restrict them as much as possible and work to support (elderly evacuees) in their local communities as much as possible.”

People working at elderly care facilities in the affected areas said they were overwhelmed at the time of the disaster.

Elderly care facility Hyakuju-en in the Ishikawa city of Wajima was severely damaged. Immediately after the quake, its workers gathered 96 residents, most of whom could not walk on their own, in one place and provided meal and toilet assistance.

There was no support from outside the facility as nearby roads were cut off. Residents who died after the quake had to be kept in the facility for days.

“The staff were exhausted,” deputy facility manager Takahiro Funamoto said. “The residents were in a life-threatening situation, because they could not eat nutritious meals and there was a risk of infectious diseases.”

According to the Ishikawa government, 12 of the 28 facilities in six heavily-hit cities and towns on the peninsula that were forced to suspend operations due to the quake remain unable to reopen.

Hyakuju-en has no choice but to give up on resuming business because its damaged facility needs rebuilding.

“We want to resume operations, but there is no facility where we can do so,” Funamoto said. “I feel really sorry.”

According to prefectural government data as of Tuesday, about 30% of disaster-related deaths from indirect causes were tied to hospital transfers or the transportation of evacuees on bad roads or for long periods during wide-area evacuations.

“The central government needs to analyze how secondary evacuations and the environments of evacuation shelters affected (evacuees),” so as to prevent deaths of elderly evacuees caused by wide-area evacuations, said Shigenori Iida, a senior prefectural official in charge of crisis management.