Japan Emperor, Empress Visit People Affected in Hokkaido Quake

November 16, 2018

Atsuma, Hokkaido--Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Thursday visited people in the town of Atsuma in Hokkaido, which was severely damaged by a massive earthquake that hit the northernmost Japan prefecture in September.

The Imperial couple asked affected people to take care of themselves during a meeting at a welfare facility. The Emperor and Empress spoke with a total of 42 people.

The Emperor asked a disaster victim who recently started living in temporary housing how the person was doing.

Speaking to a man serving as head of a neighborhood association, the Emperor said: "You must have devoted all your energy for affected people. Thank you for your hard work."

The Empress questioned people on whether they had settled in all right, and whether they were cold.

She held the hands of a woman who also suffered in the 1995 powerful earthquake in the Kobe area in western Japan. The woman shed tears when the Empress told her that her experience must have been hard.

Before the meeting, the Emperor and Empress were briefed on the extent of the earthquake's damage from Hokkaido Governor Harumi Takahashi. The couple also inspected hills where numerous landslides occurred during the earthquake.

The couple provided a sum of money to the prefectural government to support affected people.

In the 6.7-magnitude earthquake that rocked Hokkaido on Sept. 6, 41 people died, mainly from landslides. Of them, 36 were from Atsuma. Jiji Press