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Reporting Notes

Japan’s Meteorological Agency provides the preliminary magnitude, depth, local shaking, tsunami assessment and one-week safety advisory; it also says the quake does not indicate a special change in plate locking along the Nankai Trough. Aichi Prefecture’s first damage bulletin is explicitly timed 8:30 a.m. JST and lists 16 injuries in Aichi; AP and Jiji/Nippon.com report broader totals of 22 and 21 respectively, so this article attributes the figures and does not present one as a settled national count. Actual-event AP/Kyodo photos were marked for licensing, with no reuse rights established here. Both images are clearly labeled archive context: a 2016 Kumamoto earthquake-damaged home and 2011 Tohoku search-and-rescue work. Their captions include dates, creators, source links and reuse terms; the visible site files are previously prepared proportional derivatives, not images of the Nov. 8 quake.

Strong shaking across central Japan

A preliminary magnitude-5.7 earthquake struck western Shizuoka Prefecture at 1:04 a.m. Sunday, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said. The focus was about 41 kilometers underground. The strongest shaking, JMA intensity 5-upper, was recorded in Chita in neighboring Aichi Prefecture. Japan’s intensity scale describes shaking at individual locations, while magnitude describes the size of the earthquake.

The agency said there was no tsunami concern. Its first advisory reported one later quake at intensity 2 by 2:35 a.m. and warned that rockfalls or slope failures could become more likely, particularly if rain follows the shaking.

Injury counts differ as checks continue

Aichi Prefecture’s first damage bulletin, issued at 8:30 a.m. local time, listed one serious and 15 slight injuries in the prefecture. It also recorded two homes with partial damage and temporary rail suspensions on several regional lines. The bulletin reported no damage to power, gas, telephone or roads at that time.

The Associated Press, citing local media, reported at least 22 people injured, while Jiji Press, published by Nippon.com, reported 21. The figures cover reports from different authorities and were not a final national count.

Japanese rescuers search debris in Unosumai on March 17, 2011, after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami; archival context
Photo: Master Sgt. Jeremy Lock / 1st Combat Camera Squadron / DVIDS — Archive context, not the Nov. 8 earthquake: Japanese rescuers work in Unosumai on March 17, 2011, after the Tohoku disaster. Photo by Master Sgt. Jeremy Lock / 1st Combat Camera Squadron / DVIDS; U.S. government work in the public domain.

A caution, not a prediction

JMA asked people in the affected area to remain alert for about a week for another quake with shaking as strong as intensity 5-upper. It said past cases suggest such a similarly strong event follows a major earthquake in roughly one or two cases out of ten, with elevated attention especially over the next two to three days. The advisory is a risk precaution, not a forecast that another quake will occur.

The quake was within the area considered in Nankai Trough earthquake planning. JMA said its size did not indicate a special change in the locked state of the plates along the trough and said monitoring would continue. The statement does not rule out future Nankai earthquakes; it distinguishes this event from evidence of a changed plate condition.

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