A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.1 has hit Japaninjuring at least thirteen people in the southwest of the country. According to the disaster management headquarters of the Ministry of Interior and Communications, as of 8:30 a.m. today (23:30 Thursday GMT), a total of 13 people were injured in the prefectures of Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Kumamoto due to falling or hitting objects caused by the earthquake. The Meteorological Agency (JMA) immediately activated a tsunami alert of up to one meter in the areas near the epicenter. The first waves of the tsunami were detected in the port of the city of Nichinan, opposite the epicenter, where it reached 20 centimeters, later touching 40 cm in the port of Aburatsu.
As a precaution, the railway company JR Central has announced that it will reduce the speed of its trains on the Tokaido High Speed Line between Mishima and Mikawa, where earthquakes of magnitude close to 7 are still expected in the coming week.
Operators of nuclear plants in the region said no abnormalities or damage were detected in reactors at the Sendai plant in Kagoshima and the Ikata plant in Ehime.
Experts are warning of possible aftershocks in the coming days, and JMA has warned that the recorded earthquake appears to be related to a future earthquake of greater magnitude in the Nankai Trench, one of the world’s most active seismic hotspots and where a major earthquake is expected to occur in the coming decades.
