A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck southwestern Japan on Thursday afternoon, sparking a tsunami advisory around the country.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the earthquake hit off of Miyazaki Prefecture at a depth of nearly 19 miles. The agency said the tremor produced a tsunami of about one foot high in the western part of the country.The advisory called for people to immediately leave the water in Miyazaki, Oita, Kagoshima, Kokchi and Ehime prefectures.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority tried to ease fears about the earthquake's damage potential by reporting no abnormalities were found at the reactor at Sendai Power Plant in the Kagoshima prefecture and the Ikata Power Plant in Ehime prefecture.
"Under the policy of putting human life first, we are making all-out efforts to assess the damage and take emergency measures such as lifesaving and rescues," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi during a news conference.
The JMA said residents should be careful around damaged or collapsed homes and buildings and the possibility of landslides. The agency warned that aftershocks were still likely.
Japan Warns of Elevated Risk of Giant Earthquake After Strong One Hits
River Akira DavisKiuko NotoyaHisako Ueno and Victoria Kim
Japan’s meteorological agency said on Thursday that there was a higher-than-usual chance that an immense earthquake could hit the country in the next few days, following a 7.1-magnitude temblor off the southern island of Kyushu.
Japan has long expected a major earthquake to occur along the Nankai Trough off its eastern coast. As of last year, researchers said there was a 60 percent chance that an earthquake of magnitude 8 to 9 — even more devastating than the one in 2011 that laid waste to the country’s northeast coast and knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant — would occur in the trough area over the next 20 years.
After the 7.1-magnitude quake on Thursday, Japan’s meteorological agency convened a group of experts to evaluate whether it could be related to the long-anticipated bigger disaster, called a “Nankai Trough megathrust earthquake.”
Experts warn that an earthquake between two tectonic plates that converge along the Nankai megathrust fault, which runs from Kyushu north through Tokyo, could cause devastation. It could extensively damage cities throughout Japan, potentially cause a tsunami and lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
“The possibility of a large-scale earthquake occurring in the area of the Nankai Trough is relatively higher than usual,” the meteorological agency said in a statement late Thursday.
The risk that an earthquake of magnitude of 8 or higher would occur after one with a magnitude of 7 is particularly elevated for about a week after the initial temblor, the agency said.
Japan’s meteorological agency issued a “caution” level of warning on Thursday. The next step up would be an “alert,” which would advise residents to evacuate from areas deemed a tsunami risk. The agency said it was the first time Japan had issued a “caution.”
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida urged people to ensure that they were ready at all times in case an earthquake occurred and they had to evacuate. He told reporters that the government was on high alert.
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