Residents across central Japan were jolted awake at 1:04 a.m. on Sunday when an earthquake rumbled beneath western Shizuoka Prefecture. Early readings from Japanese forecasters put its strength at 5.7, while American seismologists at the USGS came in slightly lower at 5.5. The source lay about 40 kilometres underground.
The strongest shaking was felt not in Shizuoka itself but in Chita, across the border in Aichi, where the intensity reached upper 5 on Japan’s seven-level scale. At that level, walking without holding on becomes hard and loose furniture can fall over. Readings one notch below were logged in sections of Gifu, Nagano and other parts of Aichi.
Regional broadcaster Tokai TV and the Chunichi Shimbun counted at least 24 people hurt across Aichi and Shizuoka, most of them lightly. Among them was a nonagenarian whose shoulder was injured when the jolt threw her to the floor. Showroom glass at a car dealer in Toyohashi shattered, and a large bookshop in Toyota city reported stock spilling onto the floor. Hundreds of kilometres west in Osaka, someone frightened by the swaying ended up in hospital after dropping from an upper-storey apartment. No deaths were reported.
No tsunami alert was needed. Chubu Electric Power said it found nothing abnormal at its Hamaoka nuclear plant, which sits close to the zone where scientists expect a future Nankai Trough megaquake. The weather agency described the chance that Sunday’s tremor is connected to that scenario as “low”.
Rail travel took a hit in the morning hours. Bullet trains on the Tokaido line crawled along a stretch from Shizuoka towards Gifu-Hashima as a precaution; operator JR Central had them back at full speed by late morning. The national government opened a liaison office to coordinate its response.
