KOBE: Thousands of people marked on Friday (Jan 17) the 30th anniversary of an earthquake that claimed more than 6,400 lives and levelled much of the Japanese city of Kobe.

The 7.2-magnitude quake on Jan 17, 1995, sparked a major review of quake preparedness in the island nation that suffers about one fifth of the world's most powerful tremors.

Mourners observed a moment of silence before dawn at 5.46am (4.46am, Singapore time), the exact time that the quake - Japan's second deadliest since World War II - struck the port city.

"Whenever I see someone who looks like one of them, I feel it might be one of them," a man who lost his mother and sister in the disaster told public broadcaster NHK.

"I've been living like this for 30 years," he said.