Lying on the "Ring of Fire" of volcanoes and ocean trenches that encircle part of the Pacific basin, Japan accounts for about 20% of the world's earthquakes measuring magnitude 6 or higher and experiences up to 2,000 perceptible earthquakes each year.
Cracks on a road caused by an earthquake in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan on January 1, 2024. Photo: Kyodo
Here are some major earthquakes in Japan over the past 30 years.
January 16, 1995 : A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes central Japan, devastating the port city of Kobe. It is the worst earthquake to hit the country in 50 years, killing more than 6,400 people and causing an estimated $100 billion in damage.
October 23, 2004 : A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the Niigata region, about 250 km north of Tokyo, killing 65 people and injuring 3,000.
March 11, 2011 : A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan, killing nearly 20,000 people and triggering the Fukushima disaster - the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
April 16, 2016 : A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes Kumamoto on Japan's southern island, killing more than 220 people.
A car is stuck in a crack in a road after an earthquake in Ishikawa prefecture, Japan on Monday. Photo: Reuters
June 18, 2018 : A magnitude 6.1 earthquake in Osaka, Japan's second-largest metropolis, killed four people, injured hundreds more and caused production lines in an industrial park to temporarily shut down.
September 6, 2018: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake paralyzed Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, killing at least seven people, causing landslides and cutting power to 5.3 million residents.
February 13, 2021 : A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima in eastern Japan, injuring dozens of people and causing widespread power outages.
March 16, 2022 : A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes off the coast of Fukushima again, killing two people and injuring 94, and reviving memories of the quake and tsunami that crippled the area just over a decade earlier.
Mai Anh (according to Kyodo, Reuters)
Source
![[Photo] Gia Lai provincial leaders offer flowers at Uncle Ho's Monument with the ethnic groups of the Central Highlands](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/1200x675/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/7/9/196438801da24b3cb6158d0501984818)
Comment (0)