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M5.6 earthquake rocks Kanto region

53 Comments

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.6 struck the Kanto region of Japan at 2:28 p.m. on Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, adding there was no danger of a tsunami.

The epicenter of the quake was about 51 kilometers deep in northern Saitama Prefecture.

The quake had a lower 5 intensity in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, a 4 in parts of Saitama, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures. The intensity was 4 in some of Tokyo's 23 wards and a 3 in the other wards.

Buildings shook briefly in Tokyo and smartphone alerts could be heard going off in offices.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

Tokyo's subway trains were briefly halted, and Narita Airport's two runways were also closed for 10 minutes for checks, NHK reported. Haneda airport was unaffected.

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53 Comments
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Landed in Narita Friday. I forgot about the eartquakes ... so I was wondering what was going on outside!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

The pond in my yard here was rippling pretty good & my car was doing a boggie woogie!

3 ( +6 / -3 )

That was a nice shaker. Havent had one of those for a couple of years now in Tokyo.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Had a good Shindo 4 here in western Tokyo.

Knocked a few things over. Long time since we had one.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Just surprised & run out from room

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Felt it 7 stories up in the Mitaka area. Few small items knocked over nothing serious. Emergency kit by the front door ready though!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

It was the fastest I've seen my students move all day!

14 ( +15 / -1 )

Lol. There is nothing stranger than returning from a walk to the conbini to a room full of terrified people talking about some huge eathquake which allegedly just happened. I felt nothing. Hope everyone is OK!

Moderator: There was no "alleged." Please refrain from posting remarks like this.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"that train is diffinitely coming. It may be late...but it's definitely coming." Another bullet dodged.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I was driving in Tokyo and didn't feel a thing. After I got home to find the front door open and the dog still hiding under a table, my wife told me about the earthquake.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Terrible. I felt this on 11th floor of my office building at Tokyo’s 23 wards.. Seriously no one took any action. Move outside or move under the tables. I was wondering why they don't take actions..

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Probably the first time my smartphone warning has activated. Back in 2011 I was still using a gara-phone.

I must admit for a moment there I thought the big one was going to kick off.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

A couple bottles on a shelf fell over here in my apartment in Nerima, but that was it. Good reminder I need to put some things away...

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Move outside or move under the tables. I was wondering why they don't take actions..

Probably waiting for someone to tell them what to do. When that doesn't happen...........

-10 ( +3 / -13 )

Sensations from the 12th floor vantage point of the Too Much Fun Club, Kita-ku, Ojikamiya Station - zZZzz.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

^^they all had their cell phones alerting it was only a 4-5 so no need to do anything.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

this being my first time in tokyo, i was little taken back by the tremor which lasted around 10 seconds. but japan is know for its earthquakes, so i was not surprised.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@Thu, that magnitude is carry on strength. Wait to it pops to a Upper Shindo 5 and above then people will instantly do as they've been practising all their lives.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Not everyone would've had their mobile phone to hand

-5 ( +2 / -6 )

A harlem shake that nobody wanted.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I don't have a keitai but fairly easy to feel the strength level. Bigger worry is the duration and if it is a sideways or up and down movement.

The latter gets me moving fast

1 ( +1 / -0 )

As soon as the shake started this time, the last big one that had hit northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011 flashed into my mind. But in a minute or less, when the shaking stopped, I thought "it's not a big deal."

2 ( +2 / -0 )

There have been what seems like a lot of quakes around the Ring of Fire of late...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Not sure if it happened with you guys, but my phone earthquake warning came to me a good 5 seconds after the earthquake started.. Talk about not much of a warning..

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Thulanidu: "Move outside or move under the tables."

It's a natural feeling to want to jump under a desk or a table, but these end up being the cause of a lot of deaths, same as standing in door frames. It's a myth that they are safe places. Getting outside to a wide area is ideal, but then, we never know where we'll be or where we can go when the time comes. That's why it's good to have an emergency bag, but you can't really expect that you'll be in any position to get it if and when there is a disaster.

Stay safe, people. This was just a reminder of how unstable the place is.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Didn't feel a thing. We're more concerned about flash flooding here.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

They are Japanese, they know what to do. Earthquakes are frequent. Something this size is no big deal. The buildings there are built to sway with the quake to avoid destruction. You're fine unless it's a bigger quake.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

The answer for why people "took no action ": after 3/11, it takes much stronger shakes to scare us. Remember, we used to have aftershocks stronger than today's quake, once an hour or so...

8 ( +9 / -2 )

Some of us are also used to strong quakes from before we came to Japan. My 1st really big one was when I was in my teens on vacation, that one was scarier than 3/11.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I found that Japanese people didn't really react much before 3/11 either. When you face earthquakes all your life, you get used to them. I don't react much anymore myself, other than to be ready to run to a door, or today, to catch my TV if it fell.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Not sure if it happened with you guys, but my phone earthquake warning came to me a good 5 seconds after the earthquake started.. Talk about not much of a warning..

That happens when you are close to the source. The same thing happened to me last year when there was a 5+ a bit south of Sumoto on Awaji. We're 30 kilos or so from there, the phone started going off when the quake was well underway. In other situations I've had a solid 10 second warning, 3 or 4 quakes that I can recall offhand that were much further away. So, it's not completely useless...it just may not reach you in time if you're really close to the epicenter.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Strangerland: Depends on the person, of course, as I know more than a few who are still jittery from the Great Hanshin quake. In any case, I find it not that they don't react much but that they return very quickly to what they were doing before. If it's a tiny one I still know many people who bolt upright and say "Jishin!", but then, like I said, a sigh and back to the grind. I'm that way too, now. I used to kind of smile and point to something shaking (if it was hardly noticeable) and say, "earthquake", but I don't do that anymore after the Tohoku disasters, because what is a relatively small shake here could be thousands of lives somewhere else. Back to what I was saying, though, I remember JUST after I arrived in Japan... maybe two weeks in... there was a large quake at the end of my lunch break and when everyone was getting ready for work again. One coworker panicked and said, "This is a big one!" It lasted 20 seconds or so, subsiding slowly, and then everyone was off to their respected areas, but I didn't want to go anywhere at all. Not because I was afraid, but because I was in awe of what just happened. It seemed to trivial to head back to work. But, as you said, when you're used to it and when the reality is it can happy any time, you generally don't spend a lot of time worrying about it if it's one like this.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

I was in Saitama parked in my car. I thought I had hydraulics...

4 ( +4 / -0 )

How many seconds/minutes did it take? I wonder why all the news about earthquakes always does not mention the duration of it.

I think the duration is one of the most important information about an earthquake.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

when the big one comes you wont know it___say yr prayers today.

-10 ( +0 / -10 )

On 3/11 the alarms did kick off in Tokyo a few seconds ahead of the shock, because it was a long way North and out to sea. That was at least a little advance warning.

I immediately realised that today's was closer than Tohoku because of the alarm timing. The sharpness and duration also seem to have different characteristics depending on how far from the epicentre you are, and how deep it is. 3/11 was scary not only for how it was felt in Tokyo, but also because you realised straight away that other places had been much closer.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

first i look towards my friend and his eyes was wide open then i asked him to stay away from the things which might fall down.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Out in the heartlands I find Japanese people have always been jittery after quakes, as if the fear is built into their DNA somehow, from way back before 3/11.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Serious question, folks. When this kicked off today I noticed that some halfwit had placed a row of desks directly in front of the emergency exit, making it inaccessible from one direction and making it necessary for the 40+ people in the room to thread their way through a narrow dog's-leg between desks and the wall from the other. Of course, is were any one of the workers to forget to tuck his chair neatly under his desk in the panic of an emergency evacuation, the 50cm or so we are all expected to thread our way through would be completely blocked.

When I raised this point to management, the standard wagons-in-a-circle began, the decision to put the desks there was made by a man in his late 50s so it must be safe, even though this knob was busted not six months ago piling boxes up in front of the main exit.

My question is this: who do I get in touch with? There must be some government agency with the authority to check disaster preparedness - or just basic health and safety. I'm going in tomorrow with my camera. Who do I send the footage to to get something done before there's a genuine emergency and people get killed by the negligence of this shiny-suited, barcode-headed bellend?

Serious question, ladies and gentlemen. I would really like your advice.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

@'arold, obviously you're a little wound up, but coming on the site and using sophomoric terminology to describe someone just makes you look a bit, well, childish and not in anyway serious. If it is the president, CEO, absolute top person who is not take care to secure emergency preparations, contact the fire department that your office comes under.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Roxanne Danielle ButterMAY. 25, 2015 - 05:29PM JST They are Japanese, they know what to do. Earthquakes are frequent. Something this size is no big deal. The buildings there are built to sway with the quake to avoid destruction. You're fine unless it's a bigger quake.

Nope, saw plenty of people milling around like lost sheep when the March 11 quake struck. Either way, I'm glad no one was injured today

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So, it's not completely useless...it just may not reach you in time if you're really close to the epicenter.

Good point. The problem is not with the quake warning system, it is that many people don't understand the limitations and intended use of the system. Nobody has ever claimed that it is of any use in a quake like today's where the epicenter is basically under your feet. What the system is really designed for is large off-shore subduction quakes, where the time lag between waves gives people time to move to a safer area if possible and for things like trains and factories to be shut down. Just because the system appeared to be useless in a fairly minor quake like this one doesn't mean it will be useless in every quake, and understanding that fact might even save your life one day.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

I don't see how even a few seconds of warning is really going to help.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Strangerland, you'd be surprised! A biggish one came once when I was in Tokyo helping take care of my granddaughter. My phone and DIL's went off at the same time. She ran for the kitchen and turned off the gas, I ran to the front door and chocked it open with a shoebox, then we both ran back and put the baby between us. One other time I had the baby almost in her sling before it hit. Neither turned out to be a biggie, thank heaven, but you can cover one or two points with that extra time, even though it's not much.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

My daughter said the celfone earthquake warning is more scarier than the quake itself .she works at kanagawa perfecture , she said it was a bit strong and a bit longer

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The Shinkansen will make an emergency stop within those few seconds going from 320Km/h to a standstill. That will become a difference between a catastrophe and a minor footnote on the six o'clock news.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

While only a 4, we had our kits ready up on the 29th floor where it moved us quite a bit. No-one moved though, but to be honest using the stairs would've been dangerous and silly.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Nerima here. I didn't feel a single thing.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I was in Hachioji station when the alert sounded. Kinda scarey hearing it sounding on so many phones at once. People all froze and were looking at their phones. I waited, but didn't feel a thing.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Maria, please tell your daughter NOT to be scared of the warning, but to act on it and THEN when the quake kicks in it won't be as scary, because she'll have got to a safe place, position... if there was enough time to do so.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Did they always shut down the Nuclear Power Plants with these cellphone warnings, I wonder?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"Did they always shut down the Nuclear Power Plants with these cellphone warnings, I wonder?"

Chiba really had a shake, not good.

see:

ref: http://netc.com/

0 ( +0 / -0 )

UK9393 - let me get this right - I'm supposed to show deference and respect to the man who repeatedly put my life, and the lives of my colleagues in danger by blocking emergency exits in direct violation of the law?

Thank you for the advice, I'm off to the fire station today. But the man who made it necessary is a bellend, whether or not you choose to regard him as my feudal overlord.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

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