Kobe on Monday marked the 27th anniversary of the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that killed 6,434 people in the area.
Local residents and victims' families observed a moment of silence at 5:46 a.m., the time the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck Kobe and neighboring areas on Jan. 17, 1995.
Like last year, parts of memorial events were canceled or scaled back due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the measures repeated given the omicron variant's spread in Japan in recent weeks.