JAPAN TIMES

 

A strong earthquake rattled Hokkaido early Monday, the U.S. and Japanese meteorological agencies reported, the latest in a series of powerful tremors to hit Japan.

The magnitude 6.2 quake struck shortly before 5:30 a.m. in Hokkaido’s southern region, at a depth of 83 kilometers, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported.

The quake registered an upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in the town of Urahoro, Hokkaido, and a lower 5 in the town of Niikappu, also in Hokkaido, according to the JMA.

No tsunami alert was issued, and U.S. Geological Survey predicted that damage to property and threat to life was minimal, given the limited population in the region some 200 km east of Sapporo.

Ayataka Ebita, a JMA official who briefed reporters early Monday, said the latest quake is unrelated a the JMA’s special advisory warning of the increased risk of a megaquake — magnitude 8.0 or stronger — after last Monday’s magnitude 7.7 earthquake off Iwate Prefecture.
“It is a one-off earthquake,” he said.

But “in areas that experienced strong shaking, the danger of falling rocks and landslides has increased,” the JMA official told reporters.

Six people were reported injured as a result of last week’s quake, which shook large buildings in Tokyo, hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter.

In addition, 80-centimeter tsunami waves lashed a port in Iwate, while small waves also hit elsewhere in northern Japan.

The special advisory — which covers 182 municipalities from Hokkaido to Chiba Prefecture — expires at 5 p.m. Monday, though this doesn’t mean the risk will be entirely gone once it is lifted.

It’s the second time the JMA has issued such an advisory, which was created in 2022. It was first used in December following a magnitude 7.5 quake that struck the Sanriku coast.

Authorities are urging people to be ready to evacuate at any time, with a checklist to keep in mind.

Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

The archipelago, home to around 125 million people, typically experiences around 1,500 jolts every year and accounts for about 18% of the world’s earthquakes.

Japan is haunted by the memory of a massive magnitude 9.0 undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed or left missing around 18,500 people and caused a devastating meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.