Anton Bridge and Mariko Katsumura
Updated ,first published
A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu on Tuesday, killing at least three people, injuring dozens and damaging buildings including a shopping mall where many people were feared trapped after an explosion.
The tremor was centred around Kumamoto prefecture, about 900 kilometres from central Tokyo, and hit at an extremely shallow depth of 10km, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).
The blast occurred at an Aeon mall in the Kumamoto prefecture town of Kashima, according to a spokesperson. Around 20 to 30 workers at the prefecture’s largest shopping centre were unaccounted for, broadcaster NHK said. Fire services earlier said multiple people were trapped inside.
Two people were also presumed dead at a Nippon Paper Industries plant in Yatsushiro, where a chimney collapsed, with nine people still missing, according to NHK.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told media she had received initial reports of injuries, while NHK reported that at least 80 people had been hurt. Kyodo News reported that one person had been killed in a collapsed home.
Several passengers aboard high-speed trains at the time of the quake were also injured, operators said.
Speaking to reporters at her office in Tokyo, Takaichi said authorities were still assessing the full extent of the damage in the area, which was devastated by a deadly quake a decade ago.
“We have already been informed that people have been injured. Power outages and fires have occurred in some areas, and there has also been damage to roads and bridges and the collapse of buildings,” she said.
“I ask everyone to take action to protect themselves, including evacuating to a safe location.”
Around 300,000 people have been instructed to go to evacuation centres, the disaster management agency said, while Takaichi said 3600 soldiers would be deployed to help with the disaster recovery as aftershocks continued to rumble.
The quake’s maximum seismic intensity was estimated at 7 on a Japanese scale of 7. Shaking of that intensity makes it impossible to stand, according to the JMA. An initial quake just before 4.30pm Japan time was followed by a series of aftershocks in the same region.
An Aeon spokesperson said customers and employees were evacuated right after the initial quake and that the exact cause of the ensuing explosion was unclear.
Kazuya Tsurunaga told TBS he heard the explosion while cleaning up dishes broken by the earthquake inside a pub about 300 metres from the Aeon mall.
“It was a huge impact,” he said. “A large cloud of smoke billowed up, and because the wind happened to be blowing and the wind direction was towards the shop, the area around us was in a state like volcanic ash was falling.”
The Aeon mall had just reopened last month as a new and improved shopping and entertainment complex to commemorate its recovery from a deadly tremor a decade ago.
The mall was so badly damaged in the 7.3-magnitude Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016 that it had to close for months and rebuild over even longer periods. As it went through a 2017 redevelopment and expansion, the mall highlighted its seismically reinforced ceilings and overall improvements to safety and resilience.
Rail operator JR Kyushu stopped all its services, while Kumamoto airport’s runway was closed for safety checks, with no time set for re-opening. Power outages were reported at some 7-Eleven stores in Kumamoto, while NTT Docomo experienced disruptions to mobile services.
No irregularities were reported at nuclear power facilities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing said it evacuated staff at its Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing facility. TSMC, the go-to chipmaker for Nvidia and Apple operates a factory in Kumamoto prefecture, with a second facility under construction.
Sony Group produces image sensors in Kyushu that are used in smartphones, while Tokyo Electron makes chip tools and advanced packaging equipment in the region.
Chip making in particular is highly sensitive to physical shocks or disruptions in power and processes, and minor hiccups can sometimes destroy whole batches of valuable product.
Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. Located along the “Ring of Fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20 per cent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or more.
A tsunami warning was issued immediately after Tuesday’s quake, but was later lifted.
Kyushu Electric Power said 48,000 homes had lost power as a result of the latest quake, while railway company JR Kyushu said that it had suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains.
A massive earthquake in Kumamoto 10 years ago killed 275 people and injured a further 2739, according to an official count, and damaged thousands of buildings including the city’s castle, a top tourist site.
Some portions of the stone walls at the castle also collapsed as a result of Tuesday’s quake, an official at the castle’s office said.
Reuters/Bloomberg
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