Central Japan city hit hard by quake had highest rate of old homes

A city hit hard by a powerful earthquake that jolted central Japan on New Year's Day had a higher rate of old houses than other municipalities, a Kyodo News survey showed Friday, signaling their potential vulnerability in the quake-prone country.In Suzu, located on the tip of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, 65 percent of residences were built before 1981 when the country's seismic standards were largely upgraded to be able to withstand powerful temblors.The ratios of such homes were also high in two other adjacent municipalities in the peninsula -- Noto town and Wajima city -- at…READ FULL ARTICLE