Central Japan, or more precisely the Ishikawa Prefecture, was hit by 155 earthquakes between Monday and 4 p.m. (2 a.m. Monday morning Eastern Time) and Tuesday 9 a.m. (5 p.m. Monday afternoon Eastern Time ), according to the Japanese meteorological agency JMA.
Most of these earthquakes were recorded at magnitudes above 3.0. Six new strong tremors were felt Tuesday morning, according to the agency.
The earthquakes caused “many casualties” and significant material damage, with collapsed buildings and fires, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday.
“We must race against time” to save lives, he added.
Fires continued to rage Tuesday morning in Wajima, a small historic town known for its lacquerware crafts.
Firefighters are overwhelmed, a Wajima emergency services official told AFP on Tuesday. “We’re dealing with several fires,” and the number of emergency calls and damage reports continues to rise, he said.
A large, multi-story building of a local lacquer manufacturer notably collapsed, he added.
Aerial views showed the extent of the disaster from a large fire in Wajima and fishing boats sunk or grounded in Suzu, another port on the Noto Peninsula.
Nearly 32,700 homes remained without power as of Tuesday morning Japanese time, according to a local electricity supplier.
Tens of thousands of residents have had to evacuate since Monday, according to the national fire and natural disaster management agency cited by the Japanese news agency Kyodo.
A thousand soldiers from the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSF), as well as more than 2,000 firefighters and some 630 police officers have arrived as reinforcements in the disaster areas, added Mr. Kishida.
The Prime Minister also announced on Monday the sending of essential goods such as drinking water, food, blankets, gasoline and even fuel oil, by plane or by boat.
For his part, American President Joe Biden said that the United States stood “ready to provide any necessary assistance to the Japanese people”, recalling that Washington and Tokyo were “close allies”.
“Solidarity with Japan which must overcome the consequences of strong earthquakes. We share the immense pain of the families of the victims,” French President Emmanuel Macron reacted on X (ex-Twitter), adding that France was also ready to help.
“This is the Matsunami district of Noto. We are in a horrible situation. Please come help us. My city is in a horrible situation,” implored one person in a video posted Monday on X where old wooden houses could be seen collapsed.
Other images from Japanese television on Monday showed evacuees waiting outside in the cold, some covering themselves with thick blankets, others holding children.
Faced with the disaster, the traditional public New Year greetings by Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and his family, which were to be held in Tokyo on Tuesday, were canceled.
Several highways near the epicenters were closed to traffic and high-speed train (shinkansen) traffic between Tokyo and Ishikawa was interrupted on Monday.
Located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Japan is one of the countries with the most frequent earthquakes in the world.
The archipelago therefore has extremely strict construction standards, so modern buildings are generally resistant to powerful earthquakes, but older houses much less so.
But Japan is haunted by the memory of the terrible 9.0 magnitude earthquake followed by a giant tsunami in March 2011 on the northeastern coast of the country, a disaster which left some 20,000 dead and missing.
This disaster also led to the Fukushima nuclear accident, the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.
“No anomaly” has been detected in the country’s nuclear power plants, the Japanese nuclear safety authority (NRA) assured on Monday.