Kobe quake gave lessons for future, but many have gone unlearned

The Kobe earthquake at 5.46am on January 17, 1995, gave Japan 16 years to prepare for the Tohoku earthquake at 2.46pm on March 11, 2011. The numbers 46 are eerily the same, and four is the number of death in Japan. But the disasters required entirely different responses, and Japan's chronic lack of flexibility to adjust policy on the fly has hampered official responses to the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.

The Kobe earthquake, which killed more than 6,400, shattered post-war illusions about Japan's safety. TV coverage in the early days focused on damaged infrastructure, not people. The toppled Hanshin expressway lay on its side like a wounded dragon. Bank and insurance towers in the inner city bowed towards rescue workers wearing hard hats to protect themselves from falling buildings and glass.

The Kobe quake flattened almost every old wooden home and damaged many brick and concrete structures built to stronger codes in the 1980s. Sadly, the traditional roofs of heavy ceramic tiles - a hallmark of Japan's aesthetic beauty - crushed the weak walls and foundations, suffocating those sleeping below, typically elderly people who could not escape.

Since that quake exposed any design flaw or structural weakness, Japanese builders have constructed sturdier homes and offices to withstand stronger quakes, especially in Tokyo. Office towers may now sway like grass in the breeze, but they do not fall over like dominos.

But most homes, schools and hospitals in rural coastal areas are older buildings with weak walls and heavy roofs. Municipalities with shrinking populations and tax bases cannot afford to rebuild, and demolishing traditional homes would offend tourists and the soul of Japan.

Despite a long history of disasters, Japan continues to build flimsy structures on fault lines in coastal areas where no building can withstand a 10-metre wall of ocean rushing 10 kilometres inland. Kobe quickly rebuilt housing on reclaimed land that could liquefy in the next quake.

Kobe inspired a volunteer spirit in cities notoriously lacking soul at that time. Thousands carried rice bags and blankets on foot to survivors freezing outside in mid-winter. Non-governmental groups and social networks formed out of Kobe are now assisting more than 300,000 homeless people in frigid northern Japan.