Japan earthquake: 28 dead, thousands endure heat and power outages
Japanese emergency workers continued search and rescue operations on Thursday (July 30, 2026) at a devastated shopping mall in Kumamoto, as the death toll from the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that struck on Tuesday rose to 28. Survivors faced extreme heat, with temperatures forecast to reach 38°C over the weekend, and tens of thousands remained without power and water.
Kumamoto officials confirmed that four bodies were recovered from the rubble of the Aeon shopping mall after a suspected gas blast following the quake. An official from the disaster management office said that 10 people had been pulled out, of whom four were confirmed dead, one was without vital signs, and five suffered severe or minor injuries.
The earthquake caused widespread damage, flattening homes, damaging bridges, triggering fires, and disrupting utilities. As of Thursday morning, about 22,670 households and facilities had no power, and around 84,000 homes were without water. People queued for petrol and drinking water, and authorities sent hundreds of air conditioning units to shelters.
Hundreds of elderly residents sought refuge at a community centre in Uki city, sleeping on thin mats on the hard lobby floor. One woman, who declined to give her name, said she had tried to stay home or rest in her car, 'but it's too hot and there are too many mosquitoes.' Hiroyuki Matsushima, 53, a supermarket employee and father of four, added, 'In this heat, if you don't have electricity and air conditioning, it's very tough.'
The shopping mall was evacuated after the earthquake, but about 50 minutes later it was gutted by a massive blast with an unknown number of employees still inside. Businessman Fumihiko Matsuura, 56, who had visited the mall a week earlier, said, 'I was here. I was just here. It’s like I narrowly escaped the danger.' Footage showed rescue workers in orange overalls and white helmets picking through twisted steel, cables, and ceiling chunks.
At the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro city, five people were confirmed killed and four others were unaccounted for after part of a smokestack collapsed.
The United States Geological Survey measured the earthquake at magnitude 6.8, lower than Japan's reading of 7.1. Japan sits on four major tectonic plates along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' and is one of the world's most seismically active countries. Kumamoto was hit by two devastating earthquakes in 2016 that killed 273 people. The archipelago typically experiences hundreds of jolts each year, but most are mild. Japan remembers the 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake that triggered a tsunami killing about 18,500 people and causing the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
