Earthquake Rattles Tokyo, Injures Dozens Across Kanto Region
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck Tokyo and the Kanto region early Sunday morning. Dozens of people were injured, and no tsunami warning was issued.
An earthquake shook Tokyo and the wider Kanto region early Sunday, August 23, leaving dozens of people injured and causing brief disruptions to transit and power supply. The Japan Meteorological Agency put the magnitude at 5.9, while the United States Geological Survey measured 5.8. No tsunami warning was issued.
The quake’s epicenter was in the southern part of Ibaraki prefecture, at a depth of roughly 70 kilometers, though one source puts the figure at 68 kilometers. On Japan’s seven point shindo scale, which measures the intensity of shaking at ground level rather than the energy released, the quake reached a lower 5 in Tokyo’s Adachi ward and in parts of Ibaraki, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, strong enough to wake residents and set off emergency alerts on mobile phones across the region.
How Many People Were Injured
Reports differ on the exact number of people hurt. Korea Times puts the figure at no fewer than 37 across five prefectures: 15 in Tokyo, nine in Saitama, eight in Kanagawa, four in Chiba and one in Ibaraki. India TV reports a lower count of 23 injured across four prefectures, with no figure given for Tokyo: nine in Saitama, nine in Kanagawa, four in Chiba and one in Ibaraki. The biggest gap between the two accounts is in the Kanagawa injury count, and in the fact that one of the two sources does not mention any injuries in Tokyo at all.
Most of the injured suffered minor harm falling or hitting furniture and doors as they tried to get out of bed in a panic. The most serious case was a woman in her eighties who fell out of bed in Yokohama and badly injured her hip.
Transit and Utility Disruptions
The quake delayed express trains bound for Tokyo and Narita airport, as well as local lines serving the northeast of the country. Shinkansen bullet trains ran on their normal schedule throughout Sunday, the operator said.
In Tokyo’s Koto ward, an underground water main burst and sent water spilling onto the road, though the leak was fixed shortly after. About 460 households in Tokyo lost power, with supply restored over the course of Sunday morning. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said no irregularities were recorded at any of the roughly ten nuclear power plants and other facilities handling nuclear material in the affected region.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi set up a task force to assess the extent of the damage. The Japan Meteorological Agency warned residents to stay alert over the coming week for the possibility of another quake of similar strength, noting that the area around Ibaraki is known for frequent seismic activity.
Japan’s Second Major Quake in a Month
Sunday’s earthquake comes less than a month after a magnitude 7.1 quake struck the Kumamoto region on the southern island of Kyushu. That quake, considerably stronger than Sunday’s, killed 38 people and injured 364, destroying more than 1,500 buildings outright and damaging nearly 20,000 more. By comparison, Sunday’s event in the Kanto region caused no deaths and no serious structural damage, though its proximity to the densely populated Tokyo metropolitan area meant it woke and frightened a far larger number of people.
Japan sits at the junction of four tectonic plates and records thousands of measurable earthquakes every year, most of which go unnoticed. Buildings in the country are built to strict seismic standards precisely because of how often events like this occur, which is why Sunday’s quake, despite a magnitude that would cause serious damage elsewhere, passed without any building collapses.
