THE assessment for the number of missing persons after the strong earthquake that shook the central Japan on January 1 it tripled today surpassing them 320 and the dead they now amount to 168.

The previous count was 161 dead and 103 missing.

A week after the 7.5-magnitude earthquake, which also injured 565 people, the fate remains unknown 323 according to the latest local authorities this afternoon (local time).

Most of the missing are in the city of Uajima, one of the hardest hit by the disaster, on the Noto Peninsula, on the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan.

The thousands lifeguardswho have come from all over Japan and continue to search dead in ruins, they will have to face today and the snow that fell in the area, reaching in some places 10 million in height, while the temperatures do not exceed 4 degrees Celsius.

“For all those who are waiting for help in the ruins and for their families, please do not give up our efforts,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asked at a meeting today, according to the FNN television station.

The authorities express fears of new landslides due to the rainfall while o frost is expected to make travel on the road network damaged by the earthquake difficult.

Rescuers are continuing their efforts to reach more than 2,000 people, some of them in critical condition, isolated by earthquake-damaged roads, and provide them with essential supplies and equipment.

The earthquake, which was followed by hundreds of aftershocks, caused thousands of landslides throughout the region as well as the collapse of buildings and roads. It also caused a tsunami with waves more than one meter high on the coast of the Noto Peninsula, a narrow strip of land that stretches about a hundred kilometers out to sea in Japan. The tremor was felt as far away as Tokyo, 300 km away.