At least 23 people are confirmed dead and 62 injured after a powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto, a area on Japan's Kyushu island, on July 28, 2026. Rescue teams are working in very tough conditions — a second, smaller earthquake shook the area overnight, and temperatures are expected to hit 35°C on July 30 (The Guardian).

Japan's weather agency, called the Japan Meteorological Agency or JMA, officially named the event the Reiwa 8 Kumamoto Earthquake. They recorded the main quake at 4:27 p.m. local time on July 28. They measured it as a magnitude 7.1 — magnitude is a number that tells you how much energy an earthquake releases. The US Geological Survey, a separate agency, measured it slightly lower at magnitude 6.8. The quake started about 16 kilometers underground in the Kumamoto region. JMA first estimated the depth at about 10 km but later corrected it to 16 km in its third report that same day (JMA).

Japan uses its own scale to measure how strongly people feel shaking at the surface, called the shindo scale. It goes from 1 to 7. This quake hit the top of that scale. Japan's mapping agency also reported that the ground itself shifted by as much as 87 centimetres (The Guardian).

A smaller quake — called an aftershock — followed just two minutes later. In a report on July 29, JMA warned that the area of seismic activity was wide, and that future earthquakes could produce shaking even stronger than the main quake (JMA). Japan's fire and disaster agency issued a tsunami advisory — a notice that ocean waves could be dangerous — for two areas in Kumamoto Prefecture, and had published at least 18 updates through July 30 (FDMA).

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the rescue effort "a race against time" and said Japan would "go all out to find and rescue as many people as we can" (The Guardian). Nearly 5,000 military personnel — Japan's Self-Defense Forces — have been sent to the area to help.

One key rescue site is the Aeon Mall, a shopping centre in Kashima town. About 170 rescue workers have been searching through the rubble after a gas explosion there. About 3,000 customers had been evacuated before the explosion. Eight people were pulled out of the collapsed building, but three of them died. A worker from Vietnam was killed when a crane fell on him at a factory — the first reported death of a foreign citizen in the quake, according to the Vietnamese government (The Guardian). A house collapse was also reported in Yatsushiro city (ABC News).

As of July 30, nearly 34,900 homes had no electricity and 15,000 had no running water. More than 8,800 people had moved to over 400 shelters, where workers were adding power sources so air conditioning could run. A government spokesperson said more than 9,000 people were staying at 506 shelters across three regions of Kyushu island (The Guardian).

The economic effects are already showing. Toyota stopped work at three factories in the Kyushu region through Friday because the quake disrupted its suppliers and transport routes (The Guardian).

The broader context here matters. In 2016, Kumamoto was hit by two major earthquakes in just two days, which killed 273 people and caused widespread damage (France24). The current quake, while causing fewer deaths so far, has struck a region still learning from that earlier disaster. JMA's warning about potentially stronger shaking is worth taking seriously. Agencies always tell people to be careful after a big quake, but the specific language here — saying future tremors could exceed the main shock — carries real weight for decisions about evacuations and building safety.

With tens of thousands cut off from power and water, shelters packed in extreme heat, and a major company stopping production, this is a disaster still in its most urgent phase. Two things will shape what happens next: whether the shelters can keep people safe in 35°C heat, and whether JMA's warning of even stronger aftershocks comes true.