General News

News in Pictures / Turbulent start to 2024

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:08 JST, January 9, 2024

A powerful earthquake registering the maximum 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture at about 4:10 p.m. on Jan. 1, plunging into chaos a peaceful New Year’s Day meant to be spent with family.

Ryo Aoki / The Yomiuri Shimbun
A New Year’s decoration is seen on the ground after tsunami in Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 3.

A week has now passed, and Self-Defense Forces personnel, police and firefighters continue their search for survivors amid ongoing aftershocks. They are also working with affected residents to deliver relief supplies to evacuation centers and isolated communities.

Masaki Akizuki / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Rescue workers search a destroyed house in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Saturday.

Keita Iijima / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Rescue workers conduct security checks around a collapsed building in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 3.

As of 2 p.m. Monday, the death toll in Ishikawa Prefecture had reached 168. Of this number, 140 deaths occurred in Wajima and Suzu, according to the prefectural government.

Tsuyoshi Matsumoto / The Yomiuri Shimbun
A car is seen on a partially collapsed road in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Saturday.

Many major roads remain blocked in various places, with dozens of communities isolated. The search goes on for people whose safety is unaccounted for, and nearly 28,000 people have taken refuge in evacuation centers.

Yuya Tani / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Residents wait in line for water supplies at Himi city hall in Toyama Prefecture on Jan. 2.

On Jan. 2, a Japan Coast Guard aircraft that was scheduled to deliver relief supplies to the disaster area collided with a Japan Airlines passenger plane on a runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and burst into flames. All 379 people on board the Japan Airlines plane escaped, but five of the coast guard plane’s six crew members were killed.