A powerful earthquake shook the Kumamoto area on Japan's Kyushu island at 4:27 p.m. on July 28, 2026. An explosion at a shopping mall left an unknown number of people feared dead. At least 50 people were hurt, and about 300,000 residents were told to leave their homes for safety.

Japan's earthquake agency, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), measured the quake at magnitude 7.1. Magnitude tells you how much energy an earthquake releases from its source. The quake started about 20 kilometers south of Kumamoto city, which has about 700,000 people, and only 10 kilometers underground — that's shallow, which makes the shaking more intense at the surface. The US Geological Survey, an American agency, first agreed on 7.1 but later lowered its estimate to 6.8. The JMA's number was the one Japan used officially.

The JMA also measures seismic intensity — how strong the shaking feels at a given spot. The highest level is 7, and that's what Uki City and Hikawa Town experienced. Shaking was felt all the way from central Japan down to Kyushu. The quake was strong enough to get an official name, which under Japan's rules requires a magnitude of 7.0 or higher on land and intense shaking.

Right after the quake, officials sent out a tsunami warning. A tsunami is a large ocean wave caused by an underwater earthquake. The warning was lifted within two hours. More than 60 smaller quakes, called aftershocks, followed the main one over the coming hours. The JMA warned that areas with the strongest shaking could face more big quakes and landslides for about a week.

At the Aeon shopping mall in Kashima, an explosion happened shortly after the earthquake. Police told the TV station TBS that "quite a few" people were believed to be dead. A spokesperson for Aeon said workers and customers had been moved out after the first quake, but the cause of the explosion was still unknown. A man named Kazuya Tsurunaga, who was cleaning up broken dishes in a nearby pub about 300 meters away, heard the blast. NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, reported that at least one hospital treated more than 50 injured people. Several people on a fast train were also hurt.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said authorities were still figuring out how bad the damage was. The disaster management agency told about 300,000 people to go to evacuation centers. The quake cut power to 48,000 homes, according to Kyushu Electric Power. Roads, bridges, and buildings were damaged. TV news showed a bridge that had collapsed. Kumamoto airport closed its runway, flights were cancelled or sent elsewhere, and trains — including high-speed bullet trains — were stopped. A tall chimney at a paper factory fell, and parts of the stone walls at Kumamoto castle were damaged.

Several big companies — TSMC, Sony, and Fujifilm — pulled their workers out of factories in the area. Kumamoto has become a major hub for making computer chips and electronics in recent years. That matters because if factories there can't run, it could affect supplies of those products around the world, though it's too early to know how much.

This region has been through this before. In 2016, a huge earthquake in Kumamoto killed 275 people and injured 2,739. That quake actually came as two big shocks followed by many aftershocks, and it led Japan to update its building rules and disaster plans. The one-week warning the JMA issued follows a pattern: after a big inland quake, aftershocks slowly die down over several days.

The broader picture is still coming into focus. The death toll at the mall, the cause of the explosion, and the full extent of the damage are all still unknown. Takaichi's comments make clear that the numbers for injuries, evacuations, and damage are preliminary and could change. Over the coming days, search teams will keep working at the mall, and the aftershocks will continue. The one-week warning period is the timeframe that emergency crews, power companies, and factory owners are all working within as they decide what to do next.