Twenty to thirty workers remain trapped inside the collapsed Aeon Mall shopping centre in Kumamoto prefecture following two powerful earthquakes that struck Japan’s south-western Kyushu island on Tuesday. Police presume "quite a few" people are dead in the incident, broadcaster TBS reported. The mall's second floor gave way after an initial magnitude-7.1 quake hit at 4:35pm local time, followed by a magnitude-6.1 tremor at 5:12pm.
Customers and employees had been evacuated immediately after the first quake, an Aeon spokesperson stated, though the exact cause of an ensuing explosion remains unclear. This same shopping centre, home to about 200 shops and businesses, had only recently resumed operations after sustaining severe damage in the magnitude 7.3 Kumamoto earthquake in April 2016. Kazuya Tsurunaga, a local pub owner, described hearing the explosion from 300 metres away, noting a "huge impact" and a "large cloud of smoke" that drifted like volcanic ash.
Who Bears the Cost
Beyond the mall, multiple individuals are unaccounted for after a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory. The tremors caused power outages for at least 48,000 households in Kumamoto prefecture, plunging tens of thousands into darkness. Fires erupted in several locations, and reports confirmed building collapses, road damage, and a train derailment. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi acknowledged human casualties and widespread destruction, urging residents to avoid coastal areas.
Capital's Resilience, Workers' Risk
While workers faced immediate danger and residents lost power and homes, the state and corporate entities quickly moved to secure their primary assets. Kyushu Electric Power reported no irregularities at its Sendai and Genkai nuclear power stations. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority confirmed no abnormalities at three nearby nuclear power plants, a detail echoed by the UN nuclear watchdog. The IAEA announced it would continue to monitor the situation at the Sendai plant. This swift assurance regarding nuclear facilities stands in stark contrast to the ongoing rescue efforts for trapped workers.
The State's Priorities
The Japanese government issued emergency earthquake warnings across seven prefectures on Kyushu island. Prime Minister Takaichi called an Emergency Assembly Team meeting and dispatched an investigation team from the government cabinet office. Police are actively seeking the whereabouts of nine people. Train operator JR Kyushu suspended all services, including high-speed Shinkansen trains, and Kumamoto airport shut its runway, diverting and cancelling flights, though it plans to resume normal operations on Wednesday. Japan, situated on the Ring of Fire, experiences a tremor every five minutes and accounts for approximately 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude-6 or more. The region's vulnerability, highlighted by the deadly 2016 quake that killed over 50 people and damaged tens of thousands of homes, underscores the systemic failure to protect the working class from predictable disasters.