At 9:19 p.m. on Monday, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake — measuring a lower 5 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale — struck southern Japan, with the epicenter in the Hyuganada Sea off the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture.
Immediately after, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said it would begin a temporary investigation into the possibility of issuing an emergency advisory alert regarding a potential Nankai Trough earthquake, holding an evaluation meeting among experts to assess the situation.
When a quake struck a similar area in southern Japan in August of last year, an advisory regarding a possible megaquake along the Nankai Trough was issued for the first time in history, with the notice in place for around a week.
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