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Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said 13 people have died in the earthquake that hit at 16:27 local time on July 28, 2026, with rescuers racing against time to locate survivors in collapsed structures. Takaichi announced that the government had set up a task force to gather information, assess damage and prepare rescue operations. The Japan Meteorological Agency first reported the quake at magnitude 7.1 while the US Geological Survey later measured it at 6.8 with the epicenter about 20 kilometres south of Kumamoto city. More than 60 aftershocks ranging from magnitude 1 to 4 followed in the hours afterward according to the meteorological agency.
The partial collapse at an Aeon Mall in Kashima Town left three people dead and at least eight rescued with an unknown number still unaccounted for, a Kumamoto prefecture disaster management official told reporters. An explosion and smoke were seen at the mall after staff and customers had evacuated, the operator told AFP. At the Nippon Paper Yatsushiro Plant a chimney collapse left two workers in cardiac arrest and nine missing, the same official reported to the BBC while the Kumamoto prefectural emergency response team said four others were pulled out injured.
Hospitals across the region received more than 90 injured people combined with one reporting over 50 cases and another around 40 including 10 in serious condition, NHK reported. Seven passengers were injured on the Kyushu Shinkansen and others spent the night stranded on bullet trains after tracks were damaged, the public broadcaster added. Some 36,700 households lost electricity, roads ruptured, a footbridge collapsed and sections of the 17th-century Kumamoto Castle walls fell, local officials stated.
The region was previously devastated by the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes that killed 278 people and also damaged the castle, according to official Japanese government tallies. Nearly 10,000 residents were evacuated to shelters while around 300,000 were instructed to head to evacuation centres, the disaster management agency reported. A tsunami warning was issued immediately after the main shock but lifted within two hours after no major waves developed, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
Search operations for remaining missing individuals at the mall and factory continued with national self-defence forces mobilised to assist, according to updates from the prime minister’s office. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency placed initial confirmed deaths at three but the higher toll cited by Takaichi incorporated later reports from multiple sites. Japan lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire where multiple tectonic plates meet, making it one of the most seismically active countries on Earth, data from the US Geological Survey shows.
