Kobe City Employee Vows to Bring Noto Experiences Back Home; Stresses Importance of Preparation 1 Year After Noto Quake

By Yohei Murakoshi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

2:00 JST, January 3, 2025

SUZU, Ishikawa — A Kobe municipal employee, born three weeks before the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, was dispatched as a support worker for a year from April to Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, which was severely damaged by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake one year ago. The 30-year-old man vows to use his experience in Noto to convey a sense of urgency about disasters to Kobe.

Masayuki Fujisawa, who currently works at Suzu city hall, is a member of the Kobe city public relations section. Though his parents’ house in Tarumi Ward, Kobe, had not been severely damaged in the 1995 quake and no one in his family was injured, he grew up hearing from his parents on every birthday that the city had suffered severe damage, people were forced to leave their hometowns and others had to tear down their homes.

After working in the private sector, he worked for the city of Tatsuno, Hyogo Prefecture. Later, he became a Kobe city official in 2022 because he wanted to work in his hometown.

After the earthquake on New Year’s Day last year, he learned of the devastation in the Noto region and volunteered for dispatch to the disaster area.

The damage was beyond his imagination when he started working as a support worker. Approximately 3,800 houses and other structures were completely or partially destroyed by the quake, which measured upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7, and tsunami also hit the affected areas. Cars were left buried in collapsed houses. Manholes had popped up from the ground and were left untouched.

When Fujisawa called his father to tell him about the disaster, he replied, “It was the same with the Great Hanshin Earthquake. I know it’s hard to believe now.”

In June, a strong aftershock hit the area he was in and he experienced a seismic intensity of upper 5 for the first time. He was so shocked that he could not sleep well for several days and said, “How grateful I am to be able to live a normal life in Kobe.”

He is in charge of public relations at Suzu City, including updating the website and disseminating information on support programs for victims. He also participated in the production of a local cable TV program, serving as a narrator and helping to cover events. Michitoshi Tatsumi, 53, who is in charge of program production, thanked Fujisawa, saying, “I really appreciate that he came all the way from Kobe and has worked so hard.”

On Dec. 27, the last day of work in 2024, he went to 25 temporary housing facilities in the city to deliver newsletters. In the midst of light snow flurries, he handed the papers to earthquake victims.

He celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday, and Jan. 17 will mark the 30th anniversary of the major earthquake in his hometown of Kobe. When his term as a support worker ends, he plans to apply what he has experienced in the disaster-stricken area to his public relations work in Kobe.

“Even though people know that preparedness is important, few are able to get ready with a concrete image in mind,” Fujisawa said. “I want to earnestly convey how frightening these disasters are,” he said.

566 support staff from all over Japan

Municipalities hit by a major disaster tend to have worker shortages due to the enormous amount of labor involved in recovery and reconstruction in addition to the fact that employees are also victims of the disaster. Support workers who stay for long periods of time are indispensable.

According to the Ishikawa prefectural government, a total of 566 mid- to long-term dispatch workers from local governments nationwide were in place as of Dec. 2. The term of these workers is generally one year from April last year, with 147 of them working at the prefectural government and the remaining 419 at 16 cities and towns in the prefecture. Suzu has received the largest number of support workers at 85, followed by 80 in Wajima and 71 in Noto.