Kiyoshi Matsunaga was pushing a supermarket trolley towards the till in Kumamoto when the floor started moving. Shelves emptied themselves. He could not take a step. The 74-year-old told reporters he thought he was about to die.
He survived. At least 18 people did not. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Kumamoto area of Kyushu, Japan’s southern main island, late on the afternoon of Tuesday, 28 July 2026, and by Wednesday soldiers and emergency crews were still pulling at concrete in the summer heat, looking for people who had not been found yet.
The numbers so far
The Kumamoto prefectural government put the toll at 18 dead, including one foreign national, and at least 62 injured, six of them seriously, according to The Associated Press. Officials were open about the fact that the count had been climbing all day and that they did not yet know how many people were unaccounted for.
Roughly 34,900 homes were still without electricity and about 15,000 without running water. More than 8,800 people had moved into over 400 shelters, where authorities were rushing in extra power supplies so air conditioning could run, a detail that sounds minor until you remember Kyushu in late July.
Why the magnitude figures differ
If you have seen both 7.1 and 6.8 quoted, neither is wrong. Japanese officials reported the quake at magnitude 7.1 on the scale used domestically, while the United States Geological Survey catalogued it as a magnitude 6.8 event, centred near Uto at a shallow depth of about 10 kilometres. Different agencies use different magnitude formulas, and shallow depth matters more than the headline number. The closer a rupture sits to the surface, the harder the ground shakes above it. USGS modelling placed the shaking in its most severe categories and issued its highest impact alert level. Japan’s own bulletins are published by the Japan Meteorological Agency.
A tsunami advisory went out shortly after the quake and was lifted within hours. Aftershocks continued through the following day around Uto, Uki, Mifune and Tsunagi.
The shopping mall
The worst of it happened somewhere completely ordinary. The Aeon Mall in Kashima city was full, with thousands of shoppers on a Tuesday afternoon. Around 3,000 customers were moved out to the car park after the shaking stopped. Then a gas explosion tore through another part of the building where staff were still working, and the second floor came down on top of them.
Witnesses said the blast shook the neighbourhood as violently as the earthquake had. Four deaths were confirmed at the site and three people remained missing. Aeon’s president, Akio Yoshida, appeared at a press conference in Kumamoto and bowed alongside two other executives, saying the company took the loss of life seriously. Police footage released later showed a caved-in ceiling and rescue workers picking through twisted metal.
A chimney, a crane, and a young worker far from home
In nearby Yatsushiro, a chimney at a Nippon Paper Industries factory collapsed, killing five people. Seven were pulled alive from the rubble and four were still believed trapped as Wednesday went on.
The first confirmed death of a foreign national was a Vietnamese technical intern, killed when a crane fell on him at the factory where he worked. Vietnam’s government said he had arrived in Japan only in January. Seven other Vietnamese interns at the same site got out safely, and a Vietnamese woman married to one of the workers was hospitalised after a wall gave way. It is the kind of detail that gets lost in a casualty figure, a man six months into a new country, working a shift on a Tuesday.
Kumamoto Castle, again
Amateur video captured a section of the stone wall around Kumamoto Castle giving way in a cloud of dust. For anyone in the region it will feel like a rerun: the same castle was badly damaged in the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, which killed at least 50 people, and restoration work has been going on ever since.
The response
Japan’s Self Defence Forces joined the search, along with hundreds of specialist rescuers including a firefighting contingent from Taiwan. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi described the effort as a race against time and said the government was preparing food and supplies for the worst-hit districts, while urging survivors to look after themselves in the heat. For readers curious about how much authority a leader actually wields in a disaster like this, we have a plain-language guide to what a prime minister can and cannot do.
Bullet train services on the island stayed suspended. Aso Kumamoto Airport reopened on Wednesday, though some airlines cancelled flights as a precaution. Japanese carmakers and suppliers with plants in the region reported disruption, a reminder that Kyushu sits inside some very long global supply chains.
Why Japan, and why so often
Japan sits where several tectonic plates grind against one another, on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” that produces most of the world’s large earthquakes. That geology is also why the country has some of the strictest building codes anywhere and one of the best early-warning systems in existence. Both of those things almost certainly kept this toll lower than it could have been, and neither is much comfort to Kumamoto this week.
Disaster preparedness is a running theme in our coverage, from seismic risk to the seasonal warnings issued during the monsoon; see for example our reporting on IMD heavy rainfall alerts and our explainer on how the monsoon season works.
Frequently asked questions
Where exactly did the Japan earthquake hit?
The epicentre was near Uto in Kumamoto Prefecture on Kyushu, Japan’s southern main island, at a shallow depth of roughly 10 kilometres.
How many people died in the Kumamoto earthquake?
At least 18 deaths had been confirmed by Wednesday, 29 July 2026, with 62 people injured. Officials warned the toll was still rising as searches continued.
Was there a tsunami?
A tsunami advisory was issued immediately after the quake but was lifted within hours. No damaging tsunami was reported.
Is it safe to travel to Japan right now?
Most of Japan is unaffected. In Kumamoto and neighbouring areas, however, rail services have been disrupted, some flights cancelled and emergency operations are ongoing, so travellers should check official advisories before going.
Was this the same as the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake?
No, but it struck the same region. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquake killed at least 50 people and also damaged Kumamoto Castle.
Figures in this report are as of 29 July 2026 and are drawn from the Kumamoto prefectural government, Japanese officials, USGS data and wire reporting. Casualty counts in an ongoing rescue operation change quickly.
