When a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Hokkaido early on Sept. 6, flattening some houses and damaging many others, the lives of thousands of residents of the town of Abira were thrown into chaos, and hundreds were forced to seek shelter at evacuation centers.
Although located next to the hardest-hit town of Atsuma, southeast of Chitose, none of Abira's 8,131 residents died in the disaster, which killed a total of 41 people.
But the quake — which reached the top level of 7 on Japan's seismic intensity scale and registered an upper 6 in Abira — has sown uncertainty about the futures of many who lived there.