Japan Quake Death Toll Climbs as Rescue Effort Intensifies

KUMAMOTO_ Rescuers raced against time on Wednesday to search for survivors after a powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan, killing at least 13 people, trapping workers beneath collapsed buildings and disrupting power and transport across the region.

Emergency crews focused their efforts on a partially collapsed Aeon shopping mall near Kumamoto, where an apparent explosion about an hour after Tuesday’s earthquake caused extensive damage. Eight people were pulled alive from the rubble, while two women in their 20s were confirmed dead. Public broadcaster NHK reported that between 20 and 30 mall workers remained unaccounted for on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government was deploying all available resources to rescue those still trapped. Speaking in Tokyo, she described the operation as a race against time as emergency personnel continued searching damaged structures across the disaster zone.

Authorities are investigating whether a gas explosion caused the collapse at the shopping centre. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said rescuers detected the smell of gas inside the building, but added that the cause of the explosion had not yet been determined.

Fire and rescue teams, police officers and about 170 military personnel concentrated their search on sections of the mall where emergency calls had originated. Across the affected region, more than 4,500 members of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces were deployed to assist rescue and recovery operations.

Elsewhere, seven workers remained missing after the collapse of a chimney at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, where four other people were seriously injured, according to a local government official. Hospitals throughout the prefecture were treating dozens of people hurt in the earthquake.

Authorities instructed around 260,000 residents across Kumamoto Prefecture to move to evacuation centres as aftershocks remained a concern. Police said they received 386 emergency calls following the earthquake, including reports of collapsed buildings and requests for rescue.

The earthquake’s epicentre was located about 20 kilometres south of Kumamoto City, the largest city on Japan’s Kyushu island with a population of approximately 700,000.

Officials warned residents in the hardest-hit areas to remain alert for strong aftershocks over the coming week and cautioned that unstable ground could increase the risk of landslides. With more than 36,000 homes still without electricity and temperatures expected to reach around 34 degrees Celsius on Wednesday, authorities also warned of the danger of heat-related illnesses.

The disaster placed additional pressure on local healthcare facilities. A hospital in Uki City said a power outage had severely limited its operations, while another hospital suspended new admissions after receiving 86 injured patients, including three in serious condition.

Transport was also disrupted. Operators halted all high-speed rail services immediately after the earthquake, reporting injuries among several passengers who were aboard trains when the tremor struck.

Images from the damaged Aeon mall showed one side of the complex, which contains around 200 stores, torn away, exposing steel beams and scattering debris across a nearby parking area. A spokesperson for Aeon said customers and staff were evacuated immediately after the initial earthquake and that the cause of the subsequent explosion remained unclear.

Several major manufacturers, including Sony, Tokyo Electron and Honda, suspended operations at facilities in the region through Wednesday. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said it evacuated workers from its local plant as a precaution before beginning to resume operations later on Tuesday.

Road infrastructure also sustained significant damage, with major highways cracked and traffic disrupted across parts of the region.

Japan, located along the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire,” experiences about 20% of the world’s earthquakes measuring magnitude 6.0 or higher. Kumamoto Prefecture was previously struck by a devastating earthquake in 2016 that killed 275 people, injured more than 2,700 and caused extensive damage to homes, infrastructure and historic landmarks, including Kumamoto Castle, which was again among the heritage sites damaged in Tuesday’s earthquake.