Fewer people volunteered to help after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami than the after the 1995 quake that wrecked Kobe and surrounding areas, data from welfare associations in three tsunami-affected prefectures showed Thursday.

In the period spanning five years and 10 months since the disasters on March 11, 2011, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures hosted 1.52 million volunteers, compared with an estimated 2.17 million over the five years and three months after the Great Hanshin Earthquake on Jan. 17, 1995.

Experts said the longer distances and bigger difficulties reaching Tohoku from major cities might have been a potential factor in the discrepancy.