Published: Saturday, August 10, 2024, 2:51 PM
Last updated: Sat. August 10, 2024, 2:52 PM
The Japanese government on Saturday advised people to avoid stockpiling materials, as anxiety about a possible mega-earthquake led to a surge in demand for emergency kits and necessities.
In its first such warning, the weather company said it was most likely a massive earthquake after a magnitude 7. 1 tremor in the south injured 14 other people on Thursday.
On Saturday, a poster apologizing to consumers for shortages of certain products was posted in a Tokyo supermarket, attributed to “earthquake-related media reports. “
“Potential restrictions are being applied,” the signal says, adding that bottled water is already rationed due to an “unstable” supply.
On Saturday morning, Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten listed portable toilets, canned food and bottled water among its most searched items.
In Tokyo, some citizens are stepping up their crisis preparedness.
Kokoro Takeuchi, a bar worker, said she ordered bottled water online after Thursday’s quake.
“I’m very worried,” the 27-year-old told AFP.
“The bar I paint at is underground, so if an earthquake happens suddenly, there’s a big chance we won’t be able to escape. So I’ve been looking for the most productive way to evacuate,” he said. saying.
But others have resigned themselves to the inevitability of the megaquake.
“I’m worried, of course, but thinking too much about it may not get me anywhere,” Mika Nakagawa, 34, a worker at the company, told AFP.
“If that happens, then it’s over,” he said.
Some stores along the Pacific Coast have also reported strong demand for disaster-related supplies, according to local media.
The advisory relates to the Nankai Trench “subduction zone,” between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean, where large earthquakes have occurred in the past.
It has been the scene of destructive earthquakes of magnitude 8 or nine every century or two, and the central government previously estimated that the next big earthquake would occur within the next 30 years with a probability of around 70 percent.
Experts stress, however, that the risk, although high, remains low, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has invited the population to “avoid excessive accumulation of goods”.
A magnitude 5. 3 tremor struck the Kanagawa region near Tokyo on Friday, triggering emergency alarms on mobile phones and postponing high-speed exercise operations.
For most seismologists, Friday’s earthquake is not directly similar to the Nankai Basin megaquake, which approximates the distance.
Located at the highest point of four primary tectonic plates, the Japanese archipelago of 125 million people witnesses about 1,500 earthquakes a year, most of them minor.
On January 1, a magnitude 7. 6 tremor and strong aftershocks hit the Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast, killing at least 318 people, toppling buildings and destroying roads.
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