Japan on Thursday will mark the 13th anniversary of its worst disaster since World War II, in which a 7.3-magnitude tremor devastated the western city of Kobe, killing 6,433 people and leaving about 400,000 others homeless.

Japan built public housing for those who lost their homes, but new figures show that elderly people have been quietly suffering.

Since 2000, 522 people have died lonely deaths in public housing without any of their family noticing.

Last year alone, 36 men and 24 women, aged from 53 to 91, died alone in the public housing complexes, police said. Eight of the deaths were suicides.

In one case, an 81-year-old man was found dead near a lavatory in his room only after his neighbours told police they had not seen him for about a month, police said.

"Those living in the quake reconstruction complexes do not have strong community bonds in the first place," said Yoshinori Maeno, an official of the quake reconstruction section for Hyogo prefecture, which includes Kobe.

"They do not participate in sufficient activities in the community," he said. "Even if they start building communications with neighbours, they tend to become isolated again as they age."

Maeno said the local government was trying to help elderly residents communicate with one another while monitoring their lifestyles.

Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, with its cities constantly living in fear of "The Big One." It also has one of the world's oldest populations.

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