Tokara Islanders without sleep after 900 earthquakes in two weeks

More than 900 earthquakes shook remote and rarely populated island chain in southern Japan for two weeks, keeping the residents alarmed and awake all night.

Seismic activity is “very active” in the seas around the islands of Tokara since June 21, authorities announced after an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 on Wednesday.

There are no reports of damage and no tsunami warning has been raised, but the authorities advised the residents to prepare to be evacuated if necessary.

“It’s very scary to even fall asleep,” said a resident of the regional television operator MBC. “It feels always shaking.”

The Tokara area has survived clusters from earthquakes in the past, but the frequency of the most ram tremor was unusual, according to local media.

Japan is one of the most actively active nations on Earth because of its location of the so-called Pacific Ring on Fire, where many tectonic plates occur. He experiences about 1500 earthquakes every year.

About 700 people live on seven of the 12 islands. There are no hospitals on some of these distant islands -the closest is at least six hours with a ferry to the prefecture capital, Kagoshama.

“You can hear a strange roar from the ocean before the earthquakes are hit, especially at night.

“Everyone is exhausted. We just want to stop,” said the 54-year-old, who lives by the sea and runs a livestock farm with her husband.

“After so many earthquakes, it now feels that the Earth is shaking, even when it is not so,” says Isamo Sakamoto, 60 years old, head of the local Association of Residents in Ageskigima.

“The earthquakes start with a crash from below, then the house swings. It’s painful,” he said.

In the village of Toshima, some residents were deprived of sleep and tired, the authorities said as they called on the media to stop flooding locals with inquiries.

“We ask you to be careful and not to make excessive inquiries or interviews,” according to a news on the village website.

Some guest houses on the islands have stopped accepting tourists for earthquakes, Toshima village said on its website, noting that they could be used as shelters for locals.

This series of tremors comes as the country as a whole is maintained by rumors that a massive, deadly earthquake may soon be hit.

The 1999 comic book of manga artist Rio Tatsuki nourishes these rumors. In a new edition, published in 2021, she claims that the next major earthquake will strike on July 5 this year.

These speculation has frightened some tourists, with several media reporting on the noise of canceling travel.

Most of the earthquakes that hit Japan are lightweight, but there are some that caused major damage, such as the 2011 that caused massive tsunami on the northeast coast, killing more than 18,000 people.

However, the authorities have been afraid of the “big” megacua for decades once a century, for which many have grown up to be warned. The worst scenarios Predict that it can leave more than 300,000 dead.

Earlier this week, the government called for new measures, such as the construction of embankments and evacuation buildings, to strengthen public readiness in the event of such a disaster – but warned that much more should be done.