By SCM Foreign Desk
TOKYO — A powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Japan on Tuesday afternoon, triggering structural collapses, sparking fires, and leaving several people dead. Dozens of shoppers remain trapped inside a major commercial center after a partial building collapse, local authorities and emergency officials reported.
The quake struck at 4:27 p.m. local time off the coast of Kumamoto Prefecture on the southern main island of Kyushu, at a depth of roughly six miles. The Japan Meteorological Agency registered the shaking at the maximum intensity of 7 on the country’s Shindo scale—a level indicating violent ground movement where standing or walking becomes virtually impossible.
Eyewitnesses across Kumamoto described severe jolts that threw furniture across rooms, cracked roads, and knocked commuters to the ground. In the town of Kashima, residents reported being unable to keep their balance, forcing many to drop to their hands and knees and crawl across roads and building floors to seek shelter from falling debris.
Emergency response services are currently focused on the Aeon Mall in Kashima, where the second floor of the retail complex collapsed. Police and fire departments confirmed that a significant number of shoppers and workers were trapped beneath crushed structures and rubble. Local police reported receiving frantic calls describing a sound resembling an explosion inside the complex during the shaking. Emergency crews, backed by specialized search-and-rescue teams, are working against the clock to reach those trapped inside.
Prime Minister Vows Maximum Relief Effort
Speaking to reporters at the Kantei in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced the immediate formation of an emergency disaster management task force to coordinate rescue operations.
”Assess the state of affairs regarding damage as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Takaichi instructed emergency officials during an urgent cabinet meeting. “Act in close coordination with local governments and, under the principle of prioritizing human life above all else, spare no effort in our emergency disaster responses, including saving lives and rescuing disaster victims.”
Military personnel from the Japan Self-Defense Forces have been mobilized alongside local police and fire services to support search efforts, clear blocked roads, and restore emergency power in affected zones.
Authorities issued a brief tsunami advisory for the Ariake and Yatsushiro seas immediately following the quake, though the alert was lifted roughly two hours later after sea-level monitoring showed no immediate threat of destructive waves.
Japan sits directly along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”—an arc of intense volcanic and tectonic activity encircling the Pacific Basin. The country experiences roughly 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater, making its infrastructure among the most earthquake-resilient in the world.
Tuesday’s tremor reawakened memories of the devastating 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes. In April 2016, a pair of powerful shallow quakes—measuring 6.5 and 7.3—struck the exact same prefecture on Kyushu island. Those tremors killed more than 50 people, injured over 1,800, and triggered massive landslides that tore through rural communities and historical landmarks, including Kumamoto Castle.
While Japanese strict building codes are designed to withstand major seismic shocks, shallow quakes centered near urban infrastructure present extreme risks of localized structural failure. The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned residents in the Kyushu region to remain vigilant for strong aftershocks over the coming week, noting that unstable slopes and weakened building foundations pose heightened risks of landslides and further collapses.