Still standing: Unique houses survive quake in Japanese village

The New Year’s Day earthquake demolished wooden buildings all across Japan’s Noto Peninsula but thanks to decades-old smart architecture, one small fishing village stood strong.

A few roof tiles came loose but not one of around 100 structures in the windswept Akasaki district in Shika, on the western coast of Ishikawa Prefecture collapsed during the magnitude 7.6 quake whose epicenter was only a few kilometers away.

Masaki Sato, 43, drove all night from his home 300 km away in Tokyo after the quake to check on the 85-year-old house that he has owned since 2017 and runs as a summer B&B.