118 Houses Left Damaged With No Known Owner After Noto Quake; Number Expected to Rise as Investigations Continue

By Makoto Akino / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

20:00 JST, July 2, 2025

KANAZAWA — At least 118 houses have been left damaged and with no known owner in six cities and towns that were severely affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake last year. The number of such houses is likely to rise further as these municipalities struggle to determine the exact total. It is feared that the situation will hinder reconstruction efforts if it continues for too long.

The revised Civil Code that took effect in April 2023 introduced a specialized property administration system for managing unclaimed land. Under this system, interested parties can file a petition with a court to have a lawyer or a licensed land and building surveyor, depending on the circumstances of the case, appointed as the manager of a vacant building when the owner’s identity or whereabouts is unknown.

The Noto Peninsula Earthquake is the first case in which this system has been fully applied in a disaster area. Public funds are being used for demolition under the system, but so far only three buildings have been demolished in the Noto region.

The Takojimamachi district of Suzu City is dotted with vacant lots, as public-funded demolition has made significant progress in the year and a half since the disaster. Among these lots stands a single abandoned house, with household items and fragments of wood scattered all around it.

According to the district’s mayor Yoshinori Kobiki, 55, the house has been in an unclaimed state since the elderly woman who lived there passed away over 10 years ago.

“Crumbling vacant houses can hinder reconstruction efforts and have a deleterious effect on public safety and the landscape,” Kobiki said.

Kobiki has worked with residents to identify unclaimed disaster-damaged houses and requested the city to demolish 15 buildings, including this one, claiming that “prompt action is necessary.”

As of Friday, there are 71 damaged unclaimed houses in Wajima, 30 in Nanao, eight in Noto, four in Anamizu and three in Shika.

In Suzu, there are two such houses. A city official complained: “Figuring out who inherits ownership of them will take time and impose a significant burden. We would like to get through these investigations quickly after completing the public-funded demolitions for which applications have been submitted, but …”

In principle, a house’s owner must apply to have it demolished. If the owner cannot be identified, adjacent landowners or local governments can utilize the system to file a claim, and a court-appointed manager can apply for public-funded demolition. To do so, however, the applicant must investigate registration and taxation data to show that the owner genuinely cannot be identified.

In the four municipalities of Wajima, Suzu, Nanao and Anamizu, a total of 34 applications have been made under the specialized property administration system, but only two buildings have been demolished in Wajima and one in Suzu. Given this limited progress, an Environment Ministry official said, “We will make sure everyone knows about the system and support the smooth implementation of public-funded demolition.”

A 2023 survey by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry found a record 9 million vacant houses nationwide due to factors such as depopulation and aging, with 3.85 million of these being abandoned and serving no residential or rental purpose. Ishikawa Prefecture has about 87,000 vacant houses, 41,000 of which are abandoned. The number of disaster-affected unclaimed houses will likely increase as municipal surveys progress.

“Disaster-affected municipalities are short-staffed, and surveys take a considerable amount of time,” said Matsuyama University Prof. Ikuo Kurasawa, an expert on vacant houses. “The national and prefectural governments should strengthen human support, such as dispatching specialized staff.”