String of earthquakes in Japan raises fears ‘the Big One’ is about to hit

Tremors in Tokyo, at the foot of Mount Fuji, and more than 200 in the Tokara Islands in recent weeks prompt concerns a rupture of the Nankai Trough may be imminent

Experts call for calm, saying the risk of a Fukushima-like disaster has not grown – but admit that major seismic events often occur with little or no warning

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A photo taken on April 11, 2020, shows Aso Ohashi bridge under reconstruction in the Kumamoto prefecture village of Minamiaso in southwestern Japan, which was brought down by a massive earthquake-triggered landslide in 2016. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 4:07pm, 8 Dec 2021

A rash of seismic activity across an arc of southern Japan in recent weeks – including the most powerful earthquake to strike Tokyo in a decade – has triggered renewed concern that a major natural disaster may be imminent, potentially the much-feared rupture of the Nankai Trough.

Experts and government agencies have called for calm and insist there are no signs of an impending disaster to rival the March 2011 magnitude-9 quake, a tremor that unleashed a towering tsunami and caused devastation across much of northeast Japan. The Great East Japan Earthquake caused nearly 20,000 deaths and the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

Underlining the ongoing instability in the region, a magnitude-5 tremor struck just off the coast of Fukushima at 2.29am on Wednesday, although officials were quick to confirm that it had not triggered another tsunami.

Attempts to play down the public’s fears have not been entirely successful, however, with the Asahi newspaper suggesting that “the frequency of tremors indicates that a megaquake could occur in the near future” and warning of “impending doom”.

Tokyo was rocked by a magnitude 5.9 quake on October 7 and there have been a series of lower-level aftershocks across the Kanto region since then.

In the small hours of December 3, a level 4.1 tremor shook the flanks of Mount Fuji – one of Japan’s most famous landmarks and a dormant, rather than extinct, volcano that last erupted on December 16, 1707.