The death toll from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck Kyushu island in southern Japan on Tuesday has risen to 13, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi confirmed on Wednesday, as the search for survivors continues.
Previously, local authorities had reported three deaths, including two caused by the explosion and collapse of a shopping center located in the town of Kashima, where emergency services are searching for around a dozen missing people. Efforts are also underway to rescue nine people still unaccounted for in a paper factory in Yatsushiro, after the paper mill chimney split in half and collapsed.
“There are still people waiting to be rescued, so we are facing a real race against time,” the head of the Japanese government told the media from her office in Tokyo, before noting that “all available resources” have been deployed.
During the early hours, eight people were rescued from under the rubble of the shopping center operated by the Aeon company, according to NHK television, which has raised to more than two hundred the number of people who have received medical attention in various hospitals in the area.
The prime minister highlighted that, in addition to human casualties, the earthquake caused building collapses, fires, and damage to the road network. There were also power and water supply outages. The tremor, which measured 7.1—the highest according to the Japanese scale—was followed by a powerful 6.1 aftershock.
This is the first time such intensity has been recorded in Japan, considered one of the countries with the highest seismic risk in the world, since an earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in 2024 and caused about 400 deaths.
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Japanese authorities have deployed up to 4,600 military personnel on Kyushu island to participate in earthquake response efforts, according to Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi. Of these, 170 are involved in rescuing the missing in the partially collapsed shopping center.
The earthquake was recorded at 16:27 local time on Tuesday, with its hypocenter located about 10 kilometers deep under Kumamoto Prefecture, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), which issued a brief tsunami warning and alerted of aftershocks in the coming days.
The earthquake also caused significant material damage, according to authorities, including severe damage to the main highway on Kyushu island, as well as the collapse of part of the wall of the popular Kumamoto Castle and the gate of the Yatsushiro shrine, declared a cultural heritage site of the prefecture.
Authorities in the Asian country initially issued a tsunami warning on Tuesday, although that threat was soon downgraded as there was no risk of a tsunami for the country’s coast, according to the United States Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear agency, assured hours later that there was no damage or safety issues at the Sendai nuclear power plant, located on the island affected by the earthquake, according to information from Japan’s nuclear regulatory authority. “The IAEA will continue to monitor the situation,” the agency said in a post on the social network X.
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