Japanese Society Asked To Be Alert After 7.5 Magnitude Earthquake Monday Night

Earthquake illustration. (Unsplash/Anastasia R.)

JAKARTA - The Japanese government has asked its citizens to increase their vigilance, following local meteorological authorities mentioning the possibility of aftershocks in the coming days, after the earthquake that occurred on Monday night.

A powerful earthquake with an initial magnitude of 7.5 struck northeastern Japan on Monday night. The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning for the coastal areas of Hokkaido and Aomori Prefecture and Iwate, before withdrawing it hours later.

The agency also stated that the earthquake, which occurred at 23.15 p.m. off the Pacific Aomori coast at a depth of 54 kilometers, increased the possibility that an earthquake with the same magnitude or even greater would hit the same region in the coming days, quoted from Kyodo News (9/12).

This is the first time BMKG has issued such a warning to the coastal areas of Hokkaido and the coastal coast of Sanriku, which stretches from Aomori to Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office appealed to the public to maintain special preparedness for at least a week, for example by providing emergency equipment so that they can evacuate at any time if necessary.

The quake occurred in an area along a trough that stretches off the coasts of Hokkaido and northeastern Japan, where the government warned of a major earthquake caused by Pacific plates housing beneath the main island of Honshu, according to the agency.

People who were awakened by the midnight earthquake recalled the terror they experienced while trying to find protection below zero degrees outside.

"I was asleep when the earthquake started, as if I was suddenly hit from below. After that, the earthquake continued, both vertically and laterally, for a long time," said a man in his 40s in Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture.

A 75-year-old woman in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, said she was about to sleep when the earthquake occurred. She took shelter on the highlands in a car her daughter was driving.

"I was hesitant to leave. I was afraid a bear would appear, my husband needed treatment, and we had a cat," he said.

The air temperature in the coastal areas of Aomori and Iwate fell below 5 degrees Celsius on Monday night. A 27-year-old city government employee in Kuji, Iwate Prefecture, described the ice in the windshield of the car he used for evacuation.

The agency, which revised the magnitude of the 7.2 initially reported, warned of a tsunami of up to 3 meters after the earthquake. The highest tsunami was observed at about 70 centimeters in Iwate.

Three and a half hours after the earthquake occurred, the tsunami warning was lowered to alert. At 06.20 a.m. Tuesday, the alert was lifted.

The earthquake recorded the magnitude of the earthquake measuring 6 on a scale of seismic intensity Japan (7) in parts of the Aomori region. The earthquake was felt in downtown Tokyo.

A special warning from the meteorological agency for a large earthquake along Japan's northeastern Pacific offshore trough was issued after an earthquake occurred when, after careful analysis, it was found that the quake had a magnitude of 7.0 or larger.

The agency assesses that there is an opportunity of one in 100 earthquakes with a magnitude of 8 or greater that could occur within seven days. However, despite the warning in effect, the authorities did not urge the public to evacuate in preparation.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, speaking to the media at the prime minister's office, urged the public to pay attention to information released by authorities for a week and prepare to evacuate as soon as they feel the shock.

Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minuru Kihara and Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi separately briefed reporters on the government's response to the earthquake, saying rescue efforts were the most important in their minds.

In Aomori and Hokkaido, there have been reports of more than 10 injuries, including at least one serious case in Hidaka, Hokkaido, with no casualties so far. The Aomori Prefectural Government said about 2,700 houses had blackouts.

Last night's earthquake did not cause anomalies in the nuclear power plant in Hokkaido or northeastern prefectures of Aomori, Miyagi and Fukushima.

The government also confirmed that there was no anomaly in the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, a Pacific coastal village in Aomori Prefecture.

It is known that a magnitude 9.0 magnitude earthquake in 2011, which killed nearly 20,000 people and more than 2,500 people, was missing and triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster, also off Japan's northeast coast.