It was the deadliest quake in Japan since January 17, 1995, when 6,433 people died after a pre-dawn tremor in the western city of Kobe. The Kobe quake was the most devastating in modern times to hit a city in the developed world. The 10th anniversary last month was marked in the rebuilt city by a UN conference on how to reduce the risks of disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis of the type that battered the Indian Ocean in December. In autumn, nearly one million Japanese took part in earthquake preparation drills to mark another anniversary, that of the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake which devastated the Tokyo region leaving 142,807 people dead or unaccounted for.


那是自1995年1月17日以来日本发生的最致命的地震。在95年的大地震中，西部城市神户有6433人在黎明前的震动中丧生。 在当代发达国家城市遭受的侵袭中，神户地震的破坏性最大。 上个月，联合国在这座重建于废墟之上的城市举行了神户大地震十周年纪念会议，会议的主题是如何减少灾难发生的风险，例如地震和类似12月袭击印度洋海域的海啸等。 去年秋季，近100万日本人参与了地震防备演习，来纪念另一次灾难——1923年的关东大地震几乎摧毁了整个东京地区，造成142807人死亡或失踪。