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The Kobe Earthquake

How did the Kobe Earthquake (1994) affect Japanese trade, and how did its economic effect compare with the massive Tokyo earthquake in the 1920s.

1998/2/8

by David Hall, England

tokyo and kobe earthquakes

yr question limits response to economic sphere: main differences would be that port of tokyo in 1923 was not very important to japan.kobe however was number one port in japan until the kobe earthquake. although the container port in kobe has been 90% rebuilt now, yokohama port has picked up volume. additional economic differences: kobe earthquake did not affect osaka, directly to the east. osaka being a commerical hub in several respects allowed damage(in an economic impact sense) to be very contained to one of regional impact. tokyo earthquake forced entire nation to deal with rebuiding tokyo. although one can visit kobe today and still see vast tracts still not rebuilt (due to property zoning restrictions and general bubble economy that forced up land pricesto levels not able to be mainained), you can also see that kobe has, for all purposes, been rebuilt in an amazingly limited period of time. tokyo, on the other hand, according to official tokyo government news releases of the time, could not/did not claim to be rebuilt until 1930. may i take up some space to list some other non-economic differences? kobe quake was approximately 6.0. tokyo was 7.3. kobe's human life toll was just under 5,000 lives; tokyo in 1923 lost over 100,000 lives, most of whom perished due to raging fires in the city over the course of the next two days after sept 1, 1923. hope this info is useful. thnx. mark msinger@msn.com

1998/2/10

by mark, usa


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