Japan’s last big earthquake, which hit the coastal city of Kobe in January 1995, measured 7.3. That was a mere rumble compared with the force that struck off the northern coast of Japan on Friday. Yet by the time the bodies had been counted, almost 6,500 people were dead.

The earthquake that hit Kobe, a city of 1.4m in central Japan, struck at 5.46am while most people were still asleep. About 5,000 people died in the first few seconds of the quake, crushed by buildings that Japanese engineers were amazed – and ashamed – to see crumple like cards. It is thought that most of the thousands of buildings that collapsed were built before 1981, when building standards were tightened.

Nevertheless, the timing of the quake is thought to have saved lives because more may well have died had they been hit by falling masonry or trapped in some of the high-rise buildings that toppled over.