Memorial Service Held 4 Yrs after Mount Ontake Eruption

September 27, 2018

Otaki, Nagano Pref.- A memorial service was held Thursday to mark the fourth anniversary of an eruption of Mount Ontake in central Japan that left 58 people dead and five others missing.

Some 170 people, including bereaved families, participated in the ceremony, which took place in the village of Otaki, Nagano Prefecture, at the foot of the 3,067-meter volcano.

At 11:52 a.m. (2:52 a.m. GMT), the time when the eruption occurred on Sept. 27, 2014, the participants observed a moment of silence as a siren wailed to pray for the victims. In the eruption, many climbers were hit by rocks from the volcano.

The ceremony was sponsored by the village of Otaki and the town of Kiso in Nagano, also at the foot of the mountain, which straddles the prefectures of Nagano and Gifu.

"Over the past four years, we've worked hard to live as positively as possible by recalling the good times we spent with our lost families and friends," Koji Nagayama, a 48-year-old representative of the bereaved families who lost his daughter, then 11, in the eruption, said in a speech at the ceremony.

"We want thorough examinations to be conducted to figure out why climbers were not informed of earthquakes that preceded (the eruption) and related preparations were not made," Nagayama said.

Also at the ceremony, Nagano Governor Shuichi Abe said, "My government is committed to making sure safety measures are taken so that Mount Ontake will become a place where a lot of people will come back and visit, while always keeping the memories of the eruption disaster deep in our hearts."

In August last year, the Japan Meteorological Agency lowered its volcanic alert level for Mount Ontake from 2, which restricts approaches to the crater, to one, which calls for keeping in mind that the mountain is an active volcano.

On Wednesday, the town of Kiso lifted the entry restriction for a trekking route leading to the top of the mountain.

The lifting of the entry ban, effective through Oct. 8, allowed families of the eruption victims to climb to the mountaintop to pray for their loved ones on the eve of the disaster's fourth anniversary. Jiji Press