Strong Quake Strikes Remote Islands in Southwestern Japan

Kagoshima, July 3 (Jiji Press)--Another strong earthquake struck the Tokara Islands, a remote island chain off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Thursday.
 

The 5.5-magnitude quake measured lower 6, the third-highest level on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, on Akusekijima, one of the islands and part of the village of Toshima.

It struck around 4:13 p.m. at a depth of about 20 kilometers, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There was no tsunami.
 

Seventy-six people, including residents, who were on Akusekijima when the quake struck were confirmed to be safe, with no injuries reported, Toshima officials said.
 

Toshima Mayor Genichiro Kubo said that the village plans to evacuate residents willing to leave Akusekijima. The first group of 13 people are scheduled to leave for the city of Kagoshima aboard a ship set to depart shortly past 7 a.m. on Friday.
 

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba instructed officials to take disaster relief measures as needed.
 

Thursday's earthquake had the highest seismic intensity level among a string of quakes that have rocked the Tokara Islands since June 21.
 

The island chain has been hit by 1,050 quakes strong enough to be felt since June 21 as of 5 p.m. Thursday, the highest number of swarm quakes there on record dating back to December 1995.
 

"The risk of houses collapsing and landslides is increasing," Ayataka Ebita, director of the agency's Earthquake and Tsunami Observation Division, told a press conference in Tokyo.
 

He said that there is no unified view among seismologists on the cause of the frequent earthquakes.

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