News On Japan

At least 4 dead, more than 370 injured in quake

Jun 18, 2018 (NHK) - Monday's major earthquake in western Japan left 4 people dead and more than 370 injured.

The Meteorological Agency is warning it's possible another big earthquake could hit in the coming days.

Agency's official says "Frequent seismic activity is continuing in the northern part of Osaka Prefecture.

Strong tremors could have raised the risk of landslides or building collapse. People in such areas are advised to watch out for further seismic activity and rain."

The earthquake struck before 8 AM in northern Osaka and measured 6.1 in magnitude.

On Japan's seismic intensity scale of zero to seven, it's categorized as a six-minus.

9-year-old Rina Miyake was killed when a wall collapsed while she was on her way to school.

80-year-old Minoru Yasui was also hit by a falling wall in a different area. He was on his way to do volunteer work for a local school.

85-year-old Motochika Goto was killed after a bookshelf fell on him. Many of the injured have been taken to hospital with the biggest number of injuries reported in the prefecture of Osaka.

Authorities are also dealing with damage. Firefighters have put out three house fires in northern Osaka.

Pipes have cracked underneath some roads and ceiling tiles fell in city halls in Osaka, Hyogo and Nara Prefectures as well as at the terminal building of Osaka airport.

Around 1,300 people have fled to evacuation centers set up across Osaka. 100,000 homes are without gas and water outages are being reported in the northern half of Osaka.

Shinkansen bullet train services in the area were suspended for hours for safety checks.

All the service resumed in the afternoon, but there were numerous cancellations and delays.

Local trains have also been affected, stranding thousands of passengers.

Japan's nuclear regulator says no problems have been found with reactors in Fukui Prefecture.

They are located to the north of the quake's epicenter.

News On Japan
POPULAR NEWS

Japan’s World Cup campaign ended in the cruelest possible fashion on June 29, as Gabriel Martinelli scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to give Brazil a 2-1 victory over the Samurai Blue in their knockout match in Houston. Japan had led in the first half and were still level at 1-1 in the final moments, but Martinelli’s late strike sent Brazil into the Round of 16 and eliminated Japan from the tournament.

Strong earthquakes have continued to shake parts of Japan in recent weeks, with 11 temblors measuring lower 5 or above on the Japanese seismic intensity scale recorded across the country since April 2026.

A Kintetsu Railway train derailed inside Kyoto Station on the morning of June 29, forcing partial suspensions on the Kintetsu Kyoto Line for the rest of the day and causing long delays that hit commuters, students and tourists.

A section of stone wall at Hikone Castle, one of Japan’s few surviving original Edo-period castles and a National Treasure whose main keep remains intact more than 400 years after its construction, collapsed after heavy rain caused by Typhoons No. 7 and No. 8, Hikone city officials said.

Japan advanced to the knockout stage of the World Cup after a 1-1 draw with Sweden on June 25, finishing second in Group F and setting up a Round of 32 clash with Brazil in Houston.

MEDIA CHANNELS
         

MORE Society NEWS

Prosecutors sought life imprisonment for Yukio Tanaka, a senior member of a gang affiliated with the Kudo-kai crime syndicate, as his trial over the 2013 fatal shooting of Osho Food Service president Takayuki Ohigashi concluded at the Kyoto District Court, with a verdict scheduled to be handed down on October 16.

Shinjuku Ward, the Tokyo metropolitan government and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department have jointly established a Kabukicho measures council to strengthen efforts to prevent young people known as "Toyoko Kids" from being drawn into crime in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.

A 23-year-old Chinese man has been arrested and sent to prosecutors on suspicion of dangerous driving resulting in injury after allegedly crashing a Porsche into two vehicles at an intersection in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward on June 9, leaving three people with minor injuries.

The number of people with dementia or suspected dementia who were reported missing to police totaled 17,345 in 2025, down by nearly 800 from the previous year but still at a high level, according to a National Police Agency summary.

Removal work has finally begun on a massive hose that washed ashore on the coast of Shika, Ishikawa Prefecture, six months ago, but crews are already facing difficulties because the structure is filled with a large volume of water.

A 50-year-old woman has been arrested in Kobe on suspicion of abandoning the dismembered body of her former husband in a large freezer at a condominium unit, where she allegedly continued paying rent for more than 14 years while hiding his death.

A 50-year-old member of an organization affiliated with the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate has been arrested in Yamaguchi Prefecture after nearly nine years on the run over the 2017 fatal shooting of a bodyguard for the leader of a rival group in Kobe.

An Iranian national has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to smuggle more than 40 kilograms of stimulants from the United Arab Emirates into Japan in March, after customs officers found the drugs hidden in the bottom section of a machine used in the process of making naan bread.