On Tuesday, January 17th 1995, at 5.46 a.m. (local time), an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 struck the Kobe region of south-central Japan. This region is the second most populated and industrialized area after Tokyo, with a total population of about 10 million people. The ground shook for only about 20 seconds but in that short time, over 5,000 people died, over 300,000 people became homeless and damage worth an estimated £100 billion was caused to roads, houses, factories and infrastructure (gas, electric, water, etc).