Japan partially lifts tsunami advisory

Japan Times

2 days ago

The Japan Meteorological Agency on Thursday morning partially lifted a tsunami advisory that had covered a wide area of the country's Pacific coast stretching from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa Prefecture in the south.
At 10:45 a.m., the agency lifted the advisory for coastal areas between Tokyo Bay and Okinawa, except for some locations.
The measure is still in place for Pacific coastal areas between Hokkaido and Chiba Prefecture as well as for Tokyo's Izu Islands and the Tanegashima and Yakushima islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, which neighbors Okinawa.
While over 24 hours have passed since a strong earthquake occurred near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday morning, tsunamis were repeatedly observed across Japan, with some locations recording their highest waves on Thursday.
According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, 229 municipalities in 21 prefectures had issued evacuation orders as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, affecting a total of 2.01 million people.
At a news conference Thursday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the tsunamis left one person dead in Mie Prefecture, one person severely injured in Hokkaido, and six others with minor injuries in Hokkaido and Miyazaki Prefecture.
The central government is checking the severity of injuries of three other individuals sustained while evacuating, Hayashi said, adding that 11 people were taken to hospital for heatstroke from evacuation shelters and other locations.
The quake and tsunami have affected businesses in Japan as well.
Toyota announced on Thursday that it has suspended operations at a total of 18 lines across 11 plants in Japan following the earthquake. The automaker initially halted operations at eight plants on Wednesday evening.
The disruption to parts supply, caused by the shutdown of logistics hubs in coastal areas, impacted the plants, including those located inland. Toyota has not disclosed how the suspension will affect its production.
Major convenience store chains — 7-Eleven, Lawson and FamilyMart — closed hundreds of stores in the affected areas on Wednesday but they all resumed operations on Thursday.
The highest tsunami observed in Japan was a 1.3-meter-high wave at a port in Kuji, Iwate Prefecture at 1:52 p.m. Wednesday, according to the JMA.
Some areas recorded their highest waves on Thursday, with waves of 70 centimeters reaching the town of Hiroo, Hokkaido, at 1:18 a.m. and the town of Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture, at 2:27 a.m.
The city of Shimoda in Shizuoka Prefecture recorded 60 cm at 12:06 a.m., as did the city of Tosashimizu in Kochi Prefecture at 4:07 a.m. A 50-cm wave arrived at the Kagoshima city of Shibushi at 6:39 a.m.
JMA official Masashi Kiyomoto said that the temblor unleashed two types of tsunami, including one that directly travels from the epicenter to Japanese coasts. The other hits Japan after bouncing off the vast Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain stretching from an area southeast of the Russian peninsula to near the Midway Atoll.
The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain is a group of deep-sea volcanoes located at an ocean depth of about 5,000-6,000 meters. Some volcanoes are more than 4,000 meters high.
While tsunamis that directly hit Japan have a long period of high and low waves, the cycle is shorter for deflected tsunamis. When waves of both types of tsunami merge, this creates a bigger wave.
A similar phenomenon occurred in November 2006 and January 2007, when Japan was hit by tsunami waves from quakes that occurred east of the Chishima Islands, also known as the Kuril Islands.