Caption; Broken windows are seen at an imported car dealership after an earthquake in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture on November 8, 2026
In Brief
- The Incident: A 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck Shizuoka Prefecture, west of Tokyo, at 1:04 am on Sunday.
- Casualties: At least 24 people were injured across central Japan, and one person was hospitalised as far away as Osaka; no deaths were reported.
- Disruption: The tremor shattered shopfront windows and caused temporary delays to regional rail services, including Shinkansen bullet trains.
- Second Tremor: A separate 4.3-magnitude quake later hit the southwestern Kumamoto region on Sunday morning, causing no major damage.
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — A strong 5.7-magnitude earthquake shook central Japan early on Sunday, injuring dozens of people, shattering windows and disrupting train services, officials and local media said.
The quake struck at 1:04 am (1604 GMT Saturday) in Shizuoka Prefecture, west of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. No tsunami warning was issued.
Authorities reported no deaths, though the tremor damaged businesses and caused transport disruption across parts of the country.
The local Chunichi Shimbun newspaper and Tokai Television separately reported that at least 24 people were hurt across the Shizuoka and neighbouring Aichi regions.
An emergency official in Aichi told AFP that authorities had received 16 reports of mostly minor injuries. In Shizuoka, officials said at least three women sought emergency medical care, including a woman in her nineties who injured her shoulder after falling from her bed during the shaking.
The quake was felt as far west as Osaka, where a foreign resident was taken to hospital after being startled by the shaking and falling from a second-floor apartment, local media reported. Officials in Osaka could not be reached for immediate comment.
Property damage and travel chaos were also reported across the epicentre’s surrounding regions. In the city of Toyohashi in Aichi, the windows of a car dealership were shattered, while a large bookshop in nearby Toyota city reported that merchandise had fallen from its shelves.
The quake also forced temporary delays and suspensions to regional train services on Sunday morning, including the Shinkansen bullet trains.
Separately, a 4.3-magnitude quake struck the Kumamoto region at 10:53 am (0153 GMT) on Sunday, the Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of serious damage or injuries from the second tremor.
The southwestern region is still recovering from a 7.1-magnitude tremor in July that killed 38 people, flattened homes and left tens of thousands without power.
Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity, and experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year. The country remains haunted by a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed or left missing around 18,500 people and wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant.
