REPORTING. "A ghost town" : four months after the New Year earthquake in Japan, the Wakura Onsen tourist site was emptied of its inhabitants
On January 1, New Year’s celebrations in Japan were spoiled by a powerful earthquake and tsunami which left some 250 people dead on the Noto peninsula. Four months later, the ransacked homes remain as they are, the work is stalled, to the point that localities are empty, such as at the Wakura Onsen tourist site in the municipality of Nanao.
Usually in early May, Wakura Onsen is full of Japanese families on vacation. This year, no one. “Wakura Onsen was famous. But now it’s a ghost town, deplores one of the rare residents, disappointed. I no longer have neighbors. I go outside for an hour every day, I walk in circles, because if I stay alone in the house I really have no one to talk to about the day.”
The forty traditional hotels and their baths for which the place is famous are all closed, destroyed by the earthquake of January 1st. “The number of inhabitants will decrease further. There are no houses to stay in and no jobs. The young people have left. They all worked in the hotels, but since they are all screwed…”
Even four months after the disaster, there is almost no work, no workers, no construction equipment. “The roads are not repaired, breathe this woman. They don’t build temporary housing here either.” A taxi driver tells us the reason for this situation: “Large construction companies are taking care of construction sites for the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, so there is not enough labor.”
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