About 60 percent of commuters went on to their workplace rather than return home following the major earthquake that struck northern Osaka Prefecture during the June 18 morning rush hour, according to an online survey of 500 people who were on a train at the time of the quake.

The survey by Tadahiro Motoyoshi, a professor of disaster psychology at Kansai University's Faculty of Social Safety Sciences, found that 304 of the people persevered with the morning commute, while 196 returned home.

A closer look shows that of the 173 respondents who were closer to their home than their workplace when the magnitude 6.1 quake occurred at 7:58 a.m., 62 opted to keep on heading toward work.