Authorities are desperately trying to find victims trapped under the rubble caused by dozens of earthquakes that rocked Japan on New Year’s Day, destroying buildings and triggering tsunami warnings.
At least six people have died amid fears that new earthquakes could cause more homes to collapse. Local authorities reported that the bodies of the victims were recovered from the rubble of collapsed buildings.
The magnitude 7.6 earthquake sent waves more than a meter high along Japan’s west coast, forcing residents to flee to higher ground.
The quake was one of more than fifty earthquakes and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people living near the Sea of Japan, many of whom had to sleep in emergency shelters.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has issued a tsunami warning for Ishikawa, Niigata and Toyama.
The government said it ordered the evacuation of nearly 100,000 people in nine prefectures on the west coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu.
Officials in Ishikawa Prefecture said four people were killed, including a man and a woman in their 50s and a boy and a man in their 70s, and feared the death toll would rise in the coming days.
Rishi Sunak said the UK was “ready to stand with Japan” and urged British citizens in affected areas to follow the advice of Japanese authorities.
Tsunami warning
A tsunami measuring more than one meter reached the east coast of South Korea after an earthquake struck Japan on Monday, the South Korean Meteorological Agency said, adding that more and larger waves could hit in the coming hours.
The warning came after Ishikawa was issued a major tsunami warning, the first since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan, but its level was later downgraded.
Russia and North Korea also issued tsunami warnings in some areas.
Japan lowered its tsunami warning to its highest level but urged residents in coastal areas not to return to their homes as deadly waves could reach the country.
At least thirty buildings were reported to have been leveled in Wajima, a city of about 30,000 people where a major fire destroyed several buildings.
The quake also shook buildings in the capital Tokyo, about 500 km from Wajima on the other side of the coast.
The dead included an elderly man who died after a building collapsed in the town of Shika in Ishikawa, broadcaster NTV reported.
Thousands without power
US President Joe Biden said Washington was ready to provide all necessary assistance to Japan after the earthquake, which left more than 36,000 households in Ishikawa and Toyama without power and temperatures dropped to near freezing overnight.
The extent of injuries and deaths is unclear. Two people rescued from the rubble of an earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture have been found dead, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Forty railway lines and two high-speed trains heading into the quake zone were suspended, six highways were closed and one Ishikawa airport was forced to close due to a crack in the runway, transport officials said.
Japanese airline ANA diverted flights to Toyama and Ishikawa airports, and Japan Airlines canceled most flights to the Niigata and Ishikawa regions.
Evacuation order
After the earthquake, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned residents to prepare for further disasters.
“I urge people in areas where a tsunami is expected to evacuate as quickly as possible,” he said.
Professor David Tappin, a senior scientist at the British Geological Survey, said there was “lower seismicity” in the area affected by the quake, but tremors were “not uncommon”.
he told BBC Radio 4 World in one that the “risk” of a large tsunami still exists, but the “major threat has decreased.”
“One of the aspects of a tsunami is that it occurs in a closed sea. So what can happen here is that the tsunami can bounce back and forth between the coast of Japan and the coast of Asia.
“There is a possibility that new tsunamis will follow. […] but the risk is much lower.”
Japan’s nuclear regulator said no irregularities had been confirmed at nuclear power plants along the Sea of Japan, including five active reactors at Kansai Electric Power’s Ohi and Takahama plants in Fukui Prefecture.
Hokuriku’s Shika Nuclear Power Plant in Ishikawa, the nuclear power plant closest to the quake’s epicenter, had already shut down two of its reactors for regular inspections before the quake and was not damaged by the quake, the agency said.
Fukushima earthquake
The quake comes at a difficult time for Japan’s nuclear industry, which has faced fierce resistance from some local residents since the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the 2011 Fukushima meltdown.
The disaster claimed the lives of almost 20,000 people and destroyed entire cities.
Last week, Japan lifted a ban on the world’s largest nuclear power plant, Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, which failed after the 2011 tsunami caused by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake.
An earthquake, the strongest in the country’s history, and a tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in central Japan, causing numerous accidents and releases of nuclear pollution.
Four killed in 7.4 magnitude earthquake
In March 2022, the earthquake in Japan at the Fukushima nuclear power plant killed four people and injured more than 100 others.
The magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck just before midnight local time, plunging parts of northeast Japan into darkness, disrupting major transport links and killing four people.
At least 107 people were injured, some seriously, and 4,300 households were left without water.
Initially, two million households lost power and a high-speed train derailed, but no passengers were injured.