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    Japan earthquake: What we know so far

    Oki Bin OkiBy Oki Bin OkiJuly 29, 2026No Comments3 Mins Read
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    Japan earthquake: What we know so far
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    Japan is reeling from the latest major earthquake to hit the country.

    Nineteen people are missing at an Aeon shopping centre and a paper factory after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Kyushu island, an official said.

    The quake has also caused power cuts, damaged roads, collapsed a castle wall and destroyed a footbridge.

    Information is still coming out of Japan but here is what we know so far.

    When and where in Japan was the earthquake?

    The quake hit the Kumamoto prefecture on Kyushu island at 16:27 local time (07:27 GMT) on Tuesday, with hundreds of thousands of people being told to move to evacuation shelters.

    The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) reported the earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1, which the US Geological Survey later measured as a 6.8. Quake magnitude figures are often updated as seismologists obtain and analyse new data.

    Kumamoto – where the collapsed Aeon Mall is located – is a city on the Kyushu island of Japan.
    The southern island of Kyushu is the third-largest of the four main islands in Japan, and the second most populous.

    The Kumamoto prefecture is no stranger to earthquakes.

    A total of 278 people were killed in 2016 by powerful quakes in Kumamoto and neighbouring Oita prefectures, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

    What happened at the shopping centre?
    People remain trapped inside an Aeon Mall in Kumamoto prefecture, the fire service said.

    Ten people remain unaccounted for at the shopping centre, an official at the Disaster Management Division of Kumamoto prefecture told the BBC.

    Four people have been rescued from the mall and their lives are “not in danger”, the official added.

    A witness reported seeing an explosion and smoke at the shopping mall after the quake.

    The witness saw the second floor of the building collapse, with some shoppers taken to hospital.

    Japan’s fire and disaster management agency later confirmed that the second floor of a “commercial facility” collapsed, with many people trapped inside.

    Where else has been affected?
    Elsewhere in the Kumamoto prefecture, a chimney reportedly collapsed at Nippon Paper’s Yatsushiro Plant, according to police, who are being cited by NHK.

    An aerial photograph of the site obtained by Reuters news agency appears to show a broken and collapsed chimney.

    The disaster management official told the BBC that two people at the plant had been found in a state of “cardiac arrest” and nine people are still missing.

    Tremors also caused historic walls at the 17th-century Kumamoto castle to tumble.

    It is not the first time the castle has succumbed to an earthquake. When a 7.3 magnitude quake hit the region in 2016, parts of the 400-year-old castle were also damaged as turrets and curved walls collapsed. A footbridge also collapsed in the Kumamoto region.

    It is unclear if anyone was injured, or when the collapse took place. Traffic appears to be travelling on the bridge that runs parallel to it.

    More than 40,000 households are without power, according to an update on Kyushu Electric’s website. There has also been damage to roads.

    There have been more than 60 aftershocks ranging in magnitude from 1 to 4, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.

    A tsunami warning was issued immediately after the quake, but was lifted within two hours.

    By BBC News

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