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Agence France-Presse

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday cancelled a trip to Central Asia after earthquake scientists warned the country should prepare for a possible “megaquake”.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued the advisory on Thursday after eight people were on injured by a tremor of magnitude 7.1 in the south.
Kishida was due Friday to travel to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia and had planned to attend a regional summit.
“As the prime minister with the highest responsibility for crisis management, I decided I should stay in Japan for at least a week,” he told reporters.
Kishida added that the public must be feeling “very anxious” after the JMA issued its first advisory under a new system drawn up following a major magnitude 9.0 earthquake in 2011 which triggered a deadly tsunami and nuclear disaster.
“The likelihood of a new major earthquake is higher than normal, but this is not an indication that a major earthquake will definitely occur,” the JMA said.
Traffic lights and cars shook and dishes fell off shelves during Thursday’s tremor off the southern island of Kyushu, but no serious damage was reported.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said eight people were hurt – including several hit by falling objects.
Sitting on top of four major tectonic plates, the Japanese archipelago of 125 million people sees some 1,500 quakes every year, most of them minor.
Even with larger tremors the impact is generally contained thanks to advanced building techniques and well-practised emergency procedures.
The government has previously said a megaquake has a roughly 70 per cent probability of striking within the next 30 years.
It could affect a large swathe of the Pacific coastline of Japan and threaten an estimated 300,000 lives in the worst-case scenario, experts say.
“While earthquake prediction is impossible, the occurrence of one earthquake usually does raise the likelihood of another,” experts from Earthquake Insights said.
But they added that even when the risk of a second earthquake is elevated, it is “still always low”.


On January 1, a 7.6-sized jolt and powerful aftershocks hit the Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast, killing at least 318 people, toppling buildings and knocking out roads.
In 2011, a mammoth 9.0-magnitude undersea quake off northeastern Japan triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.
It sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst post-war disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
A future megaquake could emanate from the vast Nankai Trough off eastern Japan that in the past has seen major jolts, often in pairs, with magnitudes of eight and even nine.
This included in 1707 – until 2011 the largest recorded – when Mount Fuji last erupted, in 1854, and then a pair in 1944 and 1946.


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Japan

Japan PM Kishida cancels Central Asia trip after ‘megaquake’ warning

A collapsed house in earthquake-hit Osaki town, Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture. Photo: Kyodo via Reuters

Southern Japan hit by 7.1-magnitude quake, causing small tsunamis with minor damage

A person watches breaking news on a tsunami in Tokyo in April. Japan issued tsunami alerts after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck, followed by a 7.1 tremor on Thursday. Photo: AP

Visitors to the Peace Park crouch as an earthquake alert was issued in Nagasaki, western Japan. Photo: AP

People wait outside a building following an earthquake in Miyazaki,. Photo: AP

Survivors recount experience of Japan’s powerful New Year’s Day earthquake: ‘it was pretty frightening’

Destroyed houses in earthquake-hit Suzu, Ishikawa prefecture, on Tuesday. Photo: Kyodo News via AP

Smoke rises from the site of a fire that broke out following an earthquake in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, on Tuesday. Photo: Kyodo News via AP

The Shika nuclear power plant in Shika, Ishikawa, on Tuesday, a day after the earthquake struck the Noto region in Ishikawa prefecture. Photo: Jiji Press/ AFP

Japan ‘needs to learn lessons’ from slow quake response after 30 victims die in cold while trapped, waiting for rescue

More than 30 victims of the January 1 earthquake in Japan died from the cold, a police report said. Photo: Kyodo

A man stands in front of his home destroyed by fire in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture on Thursday, one month after a major earthquake struck the Noto region in Ishikawa prefecture. Photo: AFP

News

Asia

East Asia

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the first such advisory following a magnitude 7.1 tremor off the southern island of Kyushu


The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the first such advisory following a magnitude 7.1 tremor off the southern island of Kyushu.


Fumio Kishida

Earthquakes

Natural disasters