Changes in the land use and building use of traditional Japanese merchant houses in the castle town of Kumamoto City one year after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake

Many traditional Japanese merchant houses were destroyed in the castle town of Kumamoto by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. As a land use change of those sites, many coin-operated parking lots were built. Secondly, the sites of the traditional Japanese merchant houses were reconstructed into apartment buildings, resulting in the partial loss of the castle town's historic landscape. Coin-operated parking is also a temporary facility when buildings are not immediately built on cleared land, and changes in the castle town landscape must be continuously observed in the future.