Noto municipalities struggle with quake-damaged vacant houses

Tokyo (Jiji Press) — Municipalities affected by the massive Noto Peninsula earthquake in central Japan in January 2024 are struggling with quake-damaged houses that they cannot quickly remove because the owners of the houses are unclear.

The municipalities are currently aware of more than 80 such houses, but there could be even more. They are seeking to use a new system that allows such houses to be removed with court permission. Still, there are concerns that many of these houses will be left as they are.

In an area near the morning market district of the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, vacant land plots are increasing as damaged buildings are removed. One house, however, remains untouched after its roof and pillars collapsed in the earthquake more than 16 months ago.

The registered owner of the house and his or her son have already died, and a neighboring resident has asked the city government to do something about the vacant damaged house.

In principle, demolishing private properties requires applications from their owners. For houses whose owners cannot be confirmed, a new system was introduced in 2023 for municipalities and others to ask courts to select caretakers.

Using this new system, the Wajima government plans to demolish the damaged house near the morning market district soon.

There are at least 47 damaged houses whose owners are unclear in Wajima, and at least 35 in the city of Nanao. The number of such houses is expected to rise as the local governments’ surveys continue.

In order to demolish these houses by using the new system, local governments are required to specify why they believe house owners are unclear, including by presenting residential and tax records, as well as survey results.

Among the six municipalities on the Noto Peninsula, nine applications to use the new system have so far been filed by Nanao, seven by Wajima, two by the city of Suzu and one by the town of Anamizu. Demolition has only been completed in one case, in Wajima.

“It’s painstaking work to check the heirs one by one of properties for which inheritance registrations have not been made over several generations,” a Wajima city official said.

According to a survey by the internal affairs ministry in 2023, the proportion of vacant houses in Wajima was 29.2 pct, much higher than the national average of 13.8 pct.

“I think owners of vacant houses are reluctant to apply for demolition, even if their properties collapse in an earthquake,” said Shunpei Osanai, deputy head of the Ishikawa prefectural association of certified administrative scriveners.

The Environment Ministry, which oversees the publicly funded demolition of quake-damaged houses, is encouraging local municipalities to use the new caretaker system for vacant houses.

“We’ll continue to support local governments’ surveys, as damaged properties whose owners are unclear must also be demolished to advance reconstruction,” a ministry official said.