Japan’s death toll from Tuesday’s magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Kyushu rose to 13 on Wednesday, as rescuers searched for dozens still trapped after an e…
1/10Toll Climbs: Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi confirmed 13 deaths after a powerful earthquake hit southwestern Japan, with rescue work continuing into Wednesday morning. Dozens more were injured. Search teams kept combing through damaged sites for survivors. The confirmed toll rose through Tuesday night and Wednesday as officials assessed the extent of the destruction across Kumamoto prefecture.
2/10Kyushu Shaken: A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kyushu, Japan’s southern main island, on Tuesday afternoon. Its epicentre was near Uki city, about 20 kilometres south of Kumamoto city, at a depth of 10 kilometres. A tsunami advisory covering nearby coastal areas was issued and lifted within two hours. Dozens of aftershocks followed the main quake.
3/10Race Against Time: “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.” She offered condolences to victims’ families and urged affected residents to stay safe, with temperatures expected to reach around 33°C.
4/10Mall Horror: The quake collapsed the second floor of an Aeon Mall in Kashima Town, trapping people inside, Kumamoto’s fire department said. An explosion, suspected to have been caused by a gas leak, hit the mall roughly an hour later, blowing out walls. Staff had already evacuated shoppers before the blast, an Aeon spokesperson said.
5/10Dozens Missing: Three deaths were confirmed at the mall by Tuesday night, including two women in their 20s. Four injured people were pulled out, while around 20 to 30 employees remained unaccounted for. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces joined rescue workers at the site, helping deliver water and move patients to hospitals for treatment.
6/10Factory Trapped: A chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro City, trapping workers under debris, Kumamoto’s emergency team said. Two people were confirmed dead, and rescuers pulled out two survivors. As of Wednesday, seven people were still feared trapped. The company said it was still assessing the full damage.
7/10Mass Evacuation: More than 9,000 people took shelter in over 500 evacuation centres across five prefectures, including Kumamoto and Fukuoka, the government said. Around 300,000 residents were advised to evacuate as a precaution. Troop numbers assisting the rescue effort rose to 4,600 from 3,600, Kyodo News reported, as the Defence Ministry sent aircraft to survey the damage.
8/10Transport Chaos: Bullet trains and local services across Kyushu were suspended for safety checks, though some resumed later. A train derailed at Yatsushiro station, and stone walls at Kumamoto Castle, still being repaired since 2016, were damaged again. Aso Kumamoto Airport’s runway was closed, with no confirmed timeline for reopening.
9/10Industry Disrupted: Toyota, Honda and Nippon Paper suspended operations at Kyushu plants, though Toyota said it found no major damage and planned to resume Wednesday. Chipmaker TSMC said its Kumamoto site resumed operations after safety checks, while Sony evacuated staff from a nearby facility. Kyushu Electric Power reported tens of thousands of households without electricity.
10/10No Nuclear Risk: Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were found at three nearby nuclear power plants. Two major earthquakes struck Kumamoto a decade ago, in 2016, killing 275 people and injuring 2,739. The Japan Meteorological Agency’s Shinji Kiyomoto urged residents to stay alert for aftershocks over the next two to three days, given Japan’s high earthquake risk.