Following a powerful earthquake that hit central Japan's Noto region on Jan. 1, roughly 80% of people began to evacuate before a major tsunami warning was issued, according to a Nikkei analysis of smartphone location data.

Fast evacuation saved many lives as New Year's tsunami struck Japan

Noto Peninsula residents remembered lessons from 2011 disaster

YUKIKO UNE, Nikkei staff writer

March 17, 2024 11:03 JST

TOKYO -- At 4:10 p.m. on New Year's Day, a powerful 7.6-magnitude temblor rocked central Japan's Noto Peninsula. Kayoko Hamada, a 44-year-old resident in the coastal city of Suzu, Ishikawa prefecture, quickly grabbed the hand of her first-grader daughter and began to run as someone shouted, "A tsunami is coming! Run!"

With her home 50 meters from the sea, Hamada had to move fast. The images of the tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan 13 years earlier flashed before her eyes, she said. That quake and the ensuing tsunami left more than 22,000 people dead or missing.