A 2 a.m. tremor sent residents tumbling from beds across the Kanto plain as Japan’s early-warning system blared.
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck southern Ibaraki Prefecture just after 2 a.m. Sunday, rocking Tokyo and neighboring areas. The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded lower-5 intensity on its seven-point shindo scale in Adachi Ward and parts of Ibaraki, Saitama and Chiba. No tsunami followed.
Most of the 37 injuries came from panic in the dark. People fell or slammed into furniture after the sudden jolt woke them. Tokyo reported 15 cases. Saitama had nine, Kanagawa eight, Chiba four and Ibaraki one. An 80-year-old woman in Yokohama suffered a serious hip injury after falling from her bed. One other person was seriously hurt in Kanagawa. The rest were minor.
Shaking Lasted Nearly a Minute
Phones sounded the official early-warning alert seconds before the ground moved. Shaking continued up to a minute in some spots. It was the first lower-5 reading inside Tokyo’s 23 wards in five years. High-rises felt long-period motion that made standing difficult and shifted furniture.
A water main burst in Tokyo’s Koto Ward, flooding a street. Firefighters taped off the area while crews stopped the leak. Some homes lost power briefly. A ceiling section collapsed at Ushiku City Hall in Ibaraki. A few people were trapped in elevators. Express trains to Narita Airport and several local lines ran late. Bullet trains kept to schedule. Nuclear plants reported no problems.
Aftershock Watch Lasts a Week
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi posted that the government opened a crisis liaison office immediately. She told residents in the hardest-hit zones to stay alert for another quake of similar strength. The meteorological agency issued the same one-week caution. Japan sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where such events are common. Buildings here are built to ride out this level of shaking. The injuries show how even moderate quakes can hurt people who move too fast in the dark.
The tremor caused no major structural collapse in Tokyo’s towers. That outcome reflects decades of strict codes and drills. Still, officials reminded the public that aftershocks can arrive without warning.
AI Disclosure: This article was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence tools and was reviewed and edited by the Glowls News editorial team before publication.