Emergency agencies reported aftershocks in Japan a day after a violent magnitude 6.5 earthquake killed at least one person and damaged structures, injuring more than 20 others and shutting high-speed rail lines. Kyodo News reported that a 65-year-old man died when he fell off a ladder during the Friday afternoon earthquake in central Ishikawa at a depth of 12 km (7 miles). The country’s disaster management office reported 55 aftershocks, some severe, on Saturday morning, warning that heavy rain might cause landslides.
The agency reported 23 injuries. On Friday, a major holiday in Japan, train services were delayed, stranding travelers in stations during “Golden Week,” when many people travel for pleasure or to see family. Houses and a Shinto shrine were destroyed. East Japan Railway Co. reported bullet trains between Tokyo and Kanazawa in Ishikawa province were paused for safety inspections but restarted with delays. The Nuclear Regulation Authority reported no anomalies at local nuclear power stations. Two persons were rescued from collapsed buildings in Suzu, Ishikawa prefecture’s worst-hit city. After their wooden houses were largely demolished, prefecture residents cleared rubble in the rain. The earthquake scored an upper six on the Japanese Shindo seismic scale, which goes up to seven. Japan conducts emergency exercises and has tight building codes to withstand big earthquakes. In 2007, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit a fishing community on the picturesque Noto peninsula on the Sea of Japan, wounding hundreds and destroying over 200 houses. Japan, which sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of extreme seismic activity spanning the Pacific basin, is haunted by the March 2011 magnitude 9.0 underwater earthquake off its northeast. Tsunamis killed 18,500 individuals.
After returning from four African nations and Singapore, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that his administration will take “measures with a sense of urgency while closely communicating with [officials] at the scene” after the latest quake. PBS video NHK showed a hillside that collapsed on a home. A staff member visiting a relative in Ishikawa prefecture filmed a room shaking for approximately 30 seconds with picture frames rattling. Japan has numerous national holidays this week.