Aeon's President Bows Over the Mall He Reopened Six Weeks Ago
18 dead across Kumamoto by Wednesday's count — four of them in a building rebuilt after the last quake and marketed on its seismically reinforced ceilings.
Akio Yoshida bowed Wednesday at a Kumamoto press conference, two of his executives bowing beside him. "We take it seriously that an explosion happened and precious lives were lost," the Aeon Mall president said. He was answering for a building Aeon reopened on June 13 — wrecked in the 2016 quake, rebuilt in a 2017 redevelopment the company marketed on its seismically reinforced ceilings, relaunched under Aeon's own banner: a "re-start." Six weeks and three days later, its second floor sits on top of its dead.
Narativ closed Tuesday night's report with the only honest line available: no official toll existed, and the numbers would arrive when the digging ended. They started arriving at dawn. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi counted 13 dead Wednesday morning in Tokyo, with five more feared dead. By 6:18 a.m. Eastern, AP's refresh folded the feared five into the count: 18 dead, 62 injured, six of them seriously. Not two tolls — one toll, read at two hours of the same day, and rescuers are still digging. "There are people who are still waiting to be rescued," Takaichi said, "and it's a race against time."
