Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura kicked off a government-sponsored earthquake drill Monday by announcing that a hypothetical magnitude 8.6 temblor had struck off Wakayama Prefecture an hour earlier at 6:30 a.m.
According to the Cabinet Office, about 590,000 people nationwide took part in the annual drill for Disaster Prevention Day, held every Sept. 1.
This year's drill was held in the wake of several major disasters, both inside and outside Japan, including the powerful earthquake in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures in June and in Sichuan Province, China, in May.