Japan ends ‘mega quake’ advisory on Nankai Trough disasters

TOKYO - Japan is preparing to end the alert for an elevated risk of a mega quake if there are no further developments, the nation’s top spokesperson said. 

The country will end the Nankai Trough earthquake warning at 5pm local time on Aug 15 as long as there are no changes to seismic activity, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a press conference. 

A large tremor off Japan’s south-western island of Kyushu last week

prompted the government to announce its first-ever warning of an increased risk of a massive earthquake in the Nankai Trough, which extends across a large portion of the nation’s eastern coast.

A quake in the area, where the Philippine Sea plate subducts under the Eurasian continental plate, could be more destructive than the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated north-eastern Japan. 

The warning prompted some travellers to cancel hotel bookings in the affected region at peak season, domestic media said, while there were also reports of panic buying of water and other emergency supplies.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cancelled a planned trip to Central Asia, while telling reporters the warning did not imply a quake would occur within a fixed period of time.

Larger earthquakes have followed smaller ones in the past.

Foreshocks started two days before Japan was hit with a 9-magnitude earthquake in 2011, the most powerful recorded in the nation.

The tremor and resulting tsunami killed almost 20,000 and triggered a meltdown and radiation leakage at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. BLOOMBERG