Earthquake Japan - Jan 1st - updated 15th January

The New Year's Day 7.6 Richter scale earthquake in the prefecture and area of Ishikawa, Japan, caused at least 30 lives to be lost and some significant and widespread property and infrastructure damage in several cities and towns of the area. It will take some time before the extent of the damage is known and the final total of lives lost.

Aftershocks have been taking place and more are expected. Search and rescue operations are in hand with difficulties encountered reaching all areas.

Thankfully, at the time of writing, there have been no any significant tsunamis which can be far more deadly and destructive.

Initial major tsunami warnings and evacuation orders were later downgraded/cancelled and so far only relatively small tsunamis have occurred on Japan's west coast. Current tsunami adviseries are available here.

No reports of any nuclear power plants being affected.

The event was covered by catastrophe modeller firm Verisk per the attached report.

Karen Clark estimate of insured losses - 5 January 2024

The catastrophe modeller firm Karen Clark & Co ("KCC") has opined that the insured property losses may reach US$6.4bn with residential property losses accounting for over two thirds of the total.

A copy of their event analysis is available (form needs completing) here.

AIR Verisk estimate of insured property losses - 9th January

The global analytics and data firm Verisk has produced its estimate of the property losses with a range of US$1.8bn to US$3.3bn. Their report available here.

15th January

The rating agency Moody's has produced an estimate of insured losses of between US$3bn to US$6bn