Over 900 Graves Closed in Japan's Noto Quake Area

Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref., Jan. 1 (Jiji Press)--More than 900 applications needed to close family graves have been filed in the Okunoto area of central Japan since it was hit by the January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake.

The pace of applications is 2.5 times the predisaster level in the four Okunoto municipalities in Ishikawa Prefecture. Many cases involve reburial outside Okunoto, indicating that many people have found it difficult to maintain their family graves there amid an ongoing population outflow.

Applications for reburial permission are submitted to local governments when graves are removed and relocated to other sites or charnel houses.

Over the 20 months from April 2024 through November 2025, 965 such applications were submitted to the four Okunoto municipalities, namely 199 to the city of Wajima, 231 to the city of Suzu, 70 to the town of Anamizu and 465 to the town of Noto.

In the four municipalities, the number of applications averaged about 48 per month, more than double the level of about 19 for the year through March 2024.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]