Bereaved family members and government officials renewed their commitment Saturday to passing on to future generations their experiences and lessons learned from the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake as the Kansai region marked the 31st anniversary of the disaster.

Some have expressed concern over a decline in the number of memorial events as the years go by.

At a memorial gathering at a park in Kobe, participants lit bamboo and paper lanterns and offered a silent prayer at 5:46 a.m., the exact time the earthquake struck. The disaster claimed 6,434 lives.

On Saturday, about 11,000 people had visited the park by 7 a.m.

Etsuko Sato, 62, whose mother, Masako, went missing in the disaster, attended a memorial ceremony hosted by the Kobe city government as a representative of bereaved families.

¡°The earthquake is not over just because the shaking stopped,¡± Sato said in a speech. ¡°I want people to know that there are people who continue to look for their families and want to meet their loved ones.¡±

At another memorial ceremony, hosted primarily by the Hyogo Prefectural Government in Kobe, attendees offered a silent prayer at noon.

¡°We will keep in mind the experience and lessons learned from the disaster and make use of them for preparations in peacetime,¡± Hyogo Gov. Motohiko Saito said in a speech at the ceremony.

While memorial events have been held in areas hit hard by the disaster, a survey by a civic group showed that the number of such events fell by 20 from last year to 37 this year, the lowest number since the survey began in 1999.

¡°I offered my sincere condolences to the souls of the victims this year as well,¡± Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi posted on X.

¡°I have renewed my determination to protect the lives of people in Japan, one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world,¡± she added.

Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter, Princess Aiko, offered a silent prayer at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo to mark the anniversary of the disaster, according to the Imperial Household Agency.