A powerful earthquake in Japan with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale shook the southern island of Kyushu in the afternoon of July 28, 2026. At 04:15 Bulgarian time, the country's Prime Minister Sani Takaichi officially announced that the death toll had reached 13 people. Authorities are continuing their investigation to confirm whether all the deaths are directly related to the disaster, while hundreds of citizens have been injured.
Explosion and destruction at a shopping mall
The main focus of rescue operations is the city of Kashima in Kumamoto Prefecture. The second floor of the large shopping center Aeon Mall Kumamoto partially collapsed, followed by a loud explosion, most likely caused by a gas leak. Rescuers have pulled several people from the rubble, but there are still people missing under the rubble and in a collapsed paper mill in the city of Yatsushiro.
Damage to critical infrastructure in the region is enormous:
48,000 households remained without electricity. The movement of trains arrow (The runway at Kumamoto International Airport is closed indefinitely. Part of the stone walls of the historic "Kumamoto" castle collapsed.
Authorities' response and seismic situation
Prime Minister Sani Takaichi mobilized over 3,600 Self-Defense Forces soldiers to join the cleanup and search for survivors. The initial tsunami warning, with waves of up to 1 meter high, was canceled by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) about two hours after the quake.
Seismologists are warning of the risk of strong aftershocks over the next week, with dozens of aftershocks already recorded. Japan's Nuclear Regulatory Agency reassured the public that no abnormalities had been reported at the nearby Genkai and Sendai nuclear power plants.