THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
July 5, 2025 at 18:40 JST
The first batch of evacuees from Akusekijima island arrive at Kagoshima city on July 4. (Masaru Komiyaji)
TOSHIMA, Kagoshima Prefecture--More residents have decided to flee Akusekijima island after yet another strong earthquake.
The strong temblor early on July 5 registered upper 5 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7.
It apparently was sufficiently powerful to prompt an additional 20 or so islanders to conclude it was time to leave.
The island in the remote and sparsely populated Tokara chain in southern Japan has been hit by hundreds of smaller quakes in the past two weeks.
The first batch of evacuees, 13 in all, boarded a ferry to the mainland on July 4.
Toshima Mayor Genichiro Kubo told a July 5 news conference in Kagoshima city that 20 more islanders wanted to leave.
As of 5 p.m. on July 4, only two islanders said they wanted to evacuate from Akusekijima. Then the quake of upper 5 hit around 6:29 a.m. on July 5.
Although there were no injuries, the temblor amounted to writing on the wall for some.
The second batch of evacuees is expected to board the ferry to Kagoshima city on July 6.
The population of Akusekijima as of early July 5 came to 59. The figure included village government officials and police officers.
Ayataka Ebita, the head of the Japan Meteorological Agency’s Earthquake and Tsunami Observation Division, urged islanders during a July 5 news conference to remain vigilant, warning that another quake as intense as lower 6 may strike in the next few days.
Ebita added that it was pure coincidence an upper 5 quake struck on July 5, the date on which social media posts both in Japan and overseas had predicted a major earthquake would hit Japan.
He noted that Japan on average records about 2,000 quakes annually.
The 13 islanders who reached Kagoshima city on the evening of July 4 expressed relief. Some said they would get their first proper sleep in more than a week.
The ferry took about 10 hours to cover roughly 250 kilometers to Kagoshima city.
Mika Arikawa, 50, was in the first batch of evacuees. She said the daily quakes had kept her shaken and worried.
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