The death toll from the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that hit Japan's Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu has risen to 17, with at least 62 people reported injured by the prefectural government. Fears persist that the number of casualties will continue to climb.
Rescue efforts in the affected region are being severely hampered by a combination of factors, including a significant aftershock with an estimated magnitude of 5.8 that struck overnight. Additionally, officials have warned that temperatures are expected to reach 35C on Thursday, posing further challenges for the almost 5,000 Self-Defence Forces personnel deployed to the area.
Tragic incidents have emerged from the disaster zone. Eight individuals were pulled from the rubble of a mall following a gas explosion in another part of the building where some people were still working; three of them have since died. Japanese media footage depicted parts of the mall ceiling caved in, with debris scattered as helmeted and masked rescue workers scoured the site. In the first reported death of a foreign national, a Vietnamese technical intern was killed when a crane fell on him at a factory, according to the Vietnamese government.
Infrastructure damage remains extensive, with Kumamoto officials reporting that nearly 34,900 homes are without electricity and 15,000 homes lack running water. The quake has forced more than 8,800 people to evacuate their homes and seek refuge in over 400 shelters, where efforts are underway to provide power sources for air conditioning. A government spokesperson stated on Wednesday that over 9,000 people had sought shelter in 506 facilities across three regions of Kyushu island.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi addressed the nation on Wednesday, acknowledging the urgency of the situation. “There are people who are still waiting to be rescued, and it’s a race against time,” Takaichi said. “We will go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can.” Aerial police footage revealed some residential homes completely flattened, with a few having crumbled into a nearby river.
Locals described the earthquake as unprecedented in their experience, with some saying it measured at the top of Japan’s seven-level shindo scale. Kanzo Matsumoto, a 73-year-old operator of a luxury onsen hot spring inn in Yatsushiro, told Agence France-Presse, “It was the strongest quake I ever experienced.” Japan’s Geospatial Information Authority reported that some ground surfaces were displaced by as much as 87 centimetres.
The economic impact is also being felt, with some auto and chip manufacturers in Kyushu halting production on Wednesday. Toyota announced it would suspend operations at three plants in the region through Friday to assess the quake’s effect on suppliers and logistics. Kyushu is a critical hub for Japan’s automotive and semiconductor industries, collectively accounting for roughly two-fifths of the regional industrial output. Analysts suggest these factory shutdowns are largely precautionary for workers, rather than due to direct damage to production facilities.
Japan is situated on four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “ring of fire,” making it one of the world’s most seismically active countries. The archipelago, home to approximately 125 million people, experiences hundreds of tremors annually and accounts for about 18 percent of global earthquakes. Kumamoto itself was previously hit by two devastating earthquakes in 2016, which resulted in 273 fatalities and injured more than 2,800 people.
