The Japanese government advised people to avoid storage, as anxiety about a potential mega-earthquake led to a surge in demand for emergency kits and must-have items on Saturday.
In its first such warning, the weather firm said it was most likely a massive earthquake after a magnitude 7. 1 tremor in the south on Thursday left another 14 people injured.
On Saturday, a sign was posted at a Tokyo supermarket apologizing to consumers for shortages of certain products, attributed to “earthquake-related media reports. ”
“Potential restrictions on sales continue,” the signal states, 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 the most sought-after items.
Some stores along the Pacific coast have also reported strong demand for disaster-related supplies, according to local media.
The warning relates to the Nankai Trench “subduction zone” between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean, where major 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 could 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 Kanazawa 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.
On social media platform X, spam posts that are based on fears about the mega-earthquake are rapidly developing.
Public broadcaster NHK said spam disguised as useful earthquake-like recommendations was posted every few seconds on X, with links directing users to e-commerce sites.
Such messages “make it difficult for users to access original earthquake data,” NHK said.
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 7. 6 magnitude tremor and strong aftershocks shook the Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast, killing at least 318 people, toppling buildings and destroying roads.