Quake-Hit Okunoto Region Continue to See Biz Closures 2 Years On

Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref., Jan. 3 (Jiji Press)–Business closures are continuing at a rapid pace in areas hit hard by the powerful Noto Peninsula earthquake two years ago, especially in the Okunoto region in the peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan. This is mainly due to a lack of business successors and the absence of bright prospects for continuing operations as populations in the areas damaged by the Jan. 1, 2024, temblor keep declining. While work to restore damaged facilities is making progress in the current fiscal year ending in March, postdisaster reconstruction is standing at a critical juncture in terms of whether the region can revive its earning power leveraging its rich local resources. According to a survey by Kono Shinkin Bank, the number of client firms that closed operations in the four municipalities in the Okunoto region, the lender’s main service area, after the earthquake stood at 408 as of the end of November 2025, or about 15.2 pct of its total client businesses in the region, up sharply from 142 at the end of 2024. The four municipalities are the cities of Wajima and Suzu and the towns of Noto and Anamizu. Young people continue to leave the region, resulting in severe shortages of business successors and labor force. Katsuhiro Tashiro, head of the bank, based in the town of Noto, said that the region has long been facing social issues such as depopulation and the aging of society, adding that the earthquake made the situation even tougher. According to the Ishikawa prefectural government, applications for a program that offers up to 1.5 billion yen in subsidies to support the restoration of damaged facilities at small businesses started to increase sharply in the four municipalities in fiscal 2025. A total of 349 applications have been approved, and restoration work is expected to peak toward fiscal 2026, which begins in April. Meanwhile, some business operators are opting to venture into new markets, in anticipation of continued drops in the region’s population. Yasuhito Ibuchi, 46, who had run a hotel called Noroshikan near a fishing port in the Noroshimachi district of Suzu, had to tear down the hotel, which sustained heavy damage from the earthquake. He gave up on rebuilding the hotel also because the number of tourists was unlikely to recover anytime soon. Ibuchi instead looked to seaweed processing and sales since various seaweeds are caught off the coast of Suzu. He also said he “cannot forget the happy faces” of guests when they were served with seaweed dishes at his now-defunct hotel. Ibuchi plans to build a seaweed processing facility using subsidies and start mail-order sales of processed goods, rather than depending on sales to tourists. Tashiro said that the Noto region has “the power to earn” with high value-added products, such as lacquerware, salt and sake. Kono Shinkin Bank is focusing on support for business succession as well as helping clients develop new markets. “We want to add high values to business operations by buying and selling them after properly evaluating them,” Tashiro said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]