Japan PM cancels Central Asia trip after seismic alert – Observer

Japan’s prime minister canceled a planned trip to Central Asia on Friday after earthquake experts warned the country should prepare for a possible strong tremor.

“As the prime minister with the greatest responsibility for managing the crisis, I have decided to stay in Japan for at least a week,” Fumio Kishida told reporters.

The head of government was going to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia and had planned to participate in a summit of five countries in the region.

At least 13 people injured in 7.1 magnitude earthquakeon the open Richter scale, on Thursday in southwestern Japan, authorities said, warning of the possibility of strong aftershocks.

Tsunami warning raised after two earthquakes measuring 6.9 and 7.1 hit Japan’s coast

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has warned that This event appears to be linked to a future larger earthquake on the Nankai fault, one of the most active seismic hotspots in the world. and where a strong earthquake is expected to occur in the coming decades.

“The probability of another strong earthquake occurring is higher than normal, but this does not indicate any certainty,” the JMA said.

This is the first time an alert of this type has been issued since the creation of a new system in 2011.

The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, measuring 9.0 magnitude, occurred on March 11, 2011 on the northeast coast, triggering a tsunami that left around 20,000 people dead or missing.

The Japanese government had already established that there was a 70% probability that a strong earthquake would hit the country in the next 30 years.

An earthquake that could affect a significant part of Japan’s Pacific coast and threaten around 300,000 people, according to experts.

Japan is located on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an area of ​​great seismic and volcanic activity, where thousands of earthquakes are recorded each year, most of them of weak to moderate magnitude, and with around 120 active volcanoes.