Death toll in Japan earthquake rises to 30 as aftershock and heat hamper rescue efforts

Soldiers and emergency teams search badly damaged shopping centre, paper mill and homes for survivors

This aerial image shows the damaged AEON Mall after an earthquake in Kashima, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (Kyodo News via AP)

The death toll from the powerful earthquake that hit Japan on Tuesday has risen to 30, as the search for survivors trapped in a badly damaged shopping centre, paper mill and collapsed homes across the south-west of the country continues.

The 6.8-magnitude quake, which struck Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu, injured at least 62 people, according to the prefectural government.

Almost 5,000 Self-Defence Forces (SDF) personnel deployed to the region face temperatures of up to 35C on Thursday, officials said, adding that a 5.8-magnitude aftershock overnight had further complicated the rescue operation.

About 170 rescue workers are searching Aeon shopping centre in the town of Kashima, which was bustling with thousands of people when the quake happened.

The company said about 3,000 customers were evacuated to a parking lot before a gas explosion happened in another part of the mall. Twelve people have been pulled from the rubble of ​the shopping centre. Of them, six have died.

All those caught in the explosion were shop workers who went back into the building after the evacuation, Aeon said. Aeon’s president bowed in apology at a press conference on Wednesday, saying the company had failed to anticipate the explosion, the cause of which is still being investigated.

Japanese media footage from inside the shopping centre showed that part of the ceiling had caved in, and metal pieces and other debris were scattered about as helmeted and masked rescue workers searched the area.

Police and SDF personnel are still searching for one worker in the debris at the Nippon Paper mill in Yatsushiro, where a chimney collapsed. Ten others had become trapped – eight of whom died and two were badly injured.

In the first reported death of a foreign national, a Vietnamese technical intern was killed after a crane fell on him at a factory where he worked, according to the Vietnamese government.

A damaged wall is seen on the side of Aeon Mall Kumamoto after an earthquake in Kashima on July 28, 2026. "Many people" were feared trapped in a stricken shopping mall in Japan late on July 28, authorities said, after a major earthquake toppled buildings, sparked fires and reportedly injured more than 100. (Photo by JIJI Press / AFP via Getty Images) / Japan OUT

Nearly 23,000 homes are without electricity, and 75,000 homes have no running water, Kumamoto officials said. About 15,000 people have been evacuated to 400 shelters.

The defence minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, announced on Wednesday evening that the SDF was airlifting coolers to Kumamoto for deployment at shelters, while SDF vessels were shipping water and food supplies.

“We’re doing everything possible to make saving lives a priority, making efforts to deliver life-saving supplies, beginning with water,” said Koizumi.

Aerial police footage showed some homes completely flattened, including a few that crumbled into a nearby river.

Some locals said the quake was the biggest they had felt in their lifetimes, measuring at the top of Japan’s seven-level shindo scale.

“It was the strongest quake I ever experienced,” Kanzo Matsumoto, 73, the operator of a luxury onsen hot spring inn in Yatsushiro, told Agence France-Presse.

Japan’s Geospatial Information Authority said some ground surfaces were displaced by as much as 87 centimetres in the quake.

Yatsushiro town hall suffered damage to its base-isolation system – an earthquake-resistant technology designed to protect a building by cushioning its foundations from intense shaking. The town hall’s system was rebuilt after a deadly 2016 tremor.

Some auto and ​chip manufacturers with plants in Kyushu have halted production.

Toyota said it would pause operations at three plants in the region through Friday as it weighed the quake’s impact on suppliers and ⁠logistics. Honda, too, suspended operations at a motorcycle plant until Friday.

Taiwan’s TSMC has resumed operations at its Kumamoto facility, but Sony, Renesas and Tokyo Electron have all halted production.

Kyushu is ‌a key base for Japan’s automotive and semiconductor industries, which account for roughly two-fifths of regional industrial output.

Analysts said the shutdowns appeared driven largely by precautions for workers, rather than by damage to production facilities.

Kumamoto was hit by two devastating earthquakes in 2016, which killed 273 people.

The Guardian with Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse