Strong aftershocks rattled western Japan early yesterday after two powerful earthquakes the evening before injured 38 people.
Meanwhile, a powerful typhoon hit Japan's southern islands, injuring 21 people, and the Meteorological Agency warned the storm could bring heavy rains and mudslides to areas hit by the temblors.
PHOTO: AP
The two offshore quakes on Sunday -- the first with a magnitude of 6.9, followed by a 7.3-magnitude temblor five hours later -- were felt most strongly in sparsely populated areas in southwestern Wakayama prefecture, about 450km west of Tokyo.
They also shook the major cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Nagoya, and caused buildings to sway in Tokyo.
The National Police Agency said 38 people were hurt, including three people with broken bones. Most were injured in the second, more powerful quake.
Aftershocks continued to rattle the region early yesterday, including a magnitude-5.7 tremor, according to the Meteorological Agency. No damage or injuries were immediately reported.
"A series of magnitude-5 after-shocks could continue up to the next 10 days. They could cause tsunami waves, and I urge people to evacuate to higher ground," public broadcaster NHK quoted Yoshinobu Tsuji, assistant professor at the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute, as saying yesterday.
Tsunami -- waves triggered by seismic activity -- as high as 90cm were recorded along the Pacific coastline on Sunday, though the Meteorological Agency lifted its tsunami warnings early yesterday.
Kyodo News agency also reported that 600 homes were without electricity, while high-speed train services were temporarily suspended.
Also yesterday, Typhoon Songda was packing winds of up to 144kph as it headed across the East China Sea toward Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu, the Meteorological Agency said.
Police said 21 people had been injured by the storm and tens of thousands of homes were without electricity.
Though the typhoon is still far away from quake-hit areas, the Meteorological Agency said the storm could bring heavy rains and warned that landslides were increasingly likely following the temblors.
The two quakes late on Sunday occurred far off Japan's Pacific coast, which may have minimized damage.
The first quake was centered about 110km off the coast of Wakayama on the Kii peninsula and 10km beneath the ocean floor.
The second quake was centered about 130km off the coast of Kochi prefecture, also 10km below the seabed.
Authorities said it was too early to say whether the bigger of the two earthquakes was the major jolt the Japanese government had predicted would strike central Japan.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS