The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck southern Japan on Tuesday has risen to 30, as emergency teams continue searching for survivors trapped in a damaged shopping centre, a paper mill and collapsed homes across Kumamoto prefecture.
The 6.8-magnitude quake injured at least 62 people, according to the prefectural government. Almost 5,000 Self-Defence Forces (SDF) personnel have been deployed, facing temperatures of up to 35C. A 5.8-magnitude aftershock overnight further hampered rescue efforts.
Search operations at Aeon shopping centre
About 170 rescue workers were searching the Aeon shopping centre in Kashima, which was bustling when the quake struck. Aeon said about 3,000 customers were evacuated to a car park before a gas explosion occurred in another part of the centre. Six of the 12 people pulled from the rubble have died. All those caught in the explosion were shop workers who had returned after evacuation. Aeon’s president bowed in apology, saying the company had failed to anticipate the explosion, the cause of which is being investigated.
Japanese media footage from inside the centre showed part of the ceiling collapsed, with metal fragments and debris scattered across the floor as helmeted rescue workers searched.
Nippon Paper mill and other casualties
Police and SDF personnel were continuing to search for one worker in the debris at the Nippon Paper mill in Yatsushiro, where a chimney collapsed. Of the 10 others trapped, eight died and two were injured. In the first reported death of a foreign national, a Vietnamese technical intern was killed after a crane fell on him at his factory, according to the Vietnamese government.
Infrastructure and evacuations
Nearly 23,000 homes had no electricity and 75,000 had no running water, Kumamoto officials said. About 15,000 people had been evacuated to 400 shelters. Defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the SDF was airlifting coolers to shelters and delivering water and food. 'We’re doing everything possible to make saving lives a priority,' he said.
Impact on industry and seismic context
Some car and semiconductor manufacturers with plants in Kyushu have halted production. Toyota paused operations at three plants, Honda suspended a motorcycle plant until Friday. TSMC resumed operations at its Kumamoto facility, while Sony, Renesas Electronics and Tokyo Electron halted production. Kyushu is an important hub for Japan’s automotive and semiconductor industries, accounting for about 20% of the region’s industrial output. Analysts said the shutdowns appeared to be driven largely by precaution rather than damage.
The earthquake registered the maximum level 7 on Japan’s seven-level shindo scale. 'It was the strongest quake I have ever experienced,' said Kanzo Matsumoto, 73, operator of a hot spring inn in Yatsushiro. The national Geospatial Information Authority said parts of the ground shifted by 87cm during the quake. Yatsushiro town hall sustained damage to its base-isolation system, rebuilt after a deadly earthquake in 2016.
Aerial police footage showed several homes flattened, some crumbling into a river. Kumamoto was struck by two devastating earthquakes in 2016 that killed 273 people and injured more than 2,800. Japan, home to about 125 million people, usually experiences hundreds of jolts every year and accounts for about 18% of the world’s earthquakes.
