TASK FORCE
The Japanese government set up a special task force in response to the quakes, according to a statement.
Sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, Japan is one of the world’s most tectonically active countries.
The archipelago, home to around 125 million people, experiences around 1,500 jolts every year and accounts for around 18 per cent of the world’s earthquakes.
The vast majority are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to their location and the depth below the Earth’s surface at which they strike.
Still, even large quakes usually cause little damage thanks to special construction techniques and strict building regulations in the world’s number four economy.
At least 318 people were killed when an earthquake hit the Noto peninsula on the Sea of Japan side of the main island of Honshu on New Year’s Day.
The Jan 1 quake and its aftershocks toppled buildings, caused fires and knocked out infrastructure.
Japan also routinely holds emergency drills to prepare for a major quake.
It is haunted by the memory of a colossal 9.0-magnitude undersea quake off northeastern Japan in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.
It sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst post-war disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
In March 2022, a 7.4-magnitude quake off the coast of Fukushima shook large areas of eastern Japan, killing three people.
The capital Tokyo was devastated by a huge earthquake a century ago in 1923.
Source: CNA
