{"id":23031,"date":"2026-05-15T13:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T13:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/23031\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T13:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T13:22:13","slug":"strong-m6-7-earthquake-hits-near-the-east-coast-of-honshu-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/23031\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong M6.7 earthquake hits near the east coast of Honshu, Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The epicenter was located 49 km (31 miles) ESE of \u014cfunato (population 35 452), 52 km (32 miles) SE of Kamaishi (population 43 107), 59 km (37 miles) SSE of \u014ctsuchi (population 11 572), 67 km (42 miles) SSE of Yamada (population 15 195), and 129 km (80 miles) SE of Morioka (population 290 700), Iwate, Japan.<\/p>\n<p>1 000 people are estimated to have felt strong shaking, 849 000 moderate, 5 750 000 light and 364 000 weak.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), there is no tsunami threat from this event.<\/p>\n<p>The USGS issued a Green alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. There is a low likelihood of casualties and damage.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are resistant to earthquake shaking, though vulnerable structures exist. The predominant vulnerable building types are heavy wood frame and reinforced\/confined masonry construction.<\/p>\n<p>Recent earthquakes in this area have caused secondary hazards such as landslides and fires that might have contributed to losses.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1002\" height=\"851\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/epicenter-m6.7-earthquake-near-east-coast-of-honshu-japan-may-15-2026-bg.webp\" alt=\"epicenter m6.7 earthquake near east coast of honshu japan may 15 2026 bg\" class=\"wp-image-247868\"  data-\/>Image credit: USGSEstimated population exposure to earthquake shaking<img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"672\" height=\"673\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/m6.7-earthquake-near-east-coast-of-honshu-japan-may-15-2026-usgs-epe.webp\" alt=\"m6.7 earthquake near east coast of honshu japan may 15 2026 usgs epe\" class=\"wp-image-247870\"  data-\/>Image credit: USGS<img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"679\" height=\"593\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/m6.7-earthquake-near-east-coast-of-honshu-japan-may-15-2026-usgs-epet.webp\" alt=\"m6.7 earthquake near east coast of honshu japan may 15 2026 usgs epet\" class=\"wp-image-247871\"  data-\/>Selected cities exposed<img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"681\" height=\"649\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/m6.7-earthquake-near-east-coast-of-honshu-japan-may-15-2026-usgs-sce.webp\" alt=\"m6.7 earthquake near east coast of honshu japan may 15 2026 usgs sce\" class=\"wp-image-247873\"  data-\/>Regional seismicity<img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"835\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/m6.7-earthquake-near-east-coast-of-honshu-japan-may-15-2026-emsc-regional-seismicity.webp\" alt=\"m6.7 earthquake near east coast of honshu japan may 15 2026 emsc regional seismicity\" class=\"wp-image-247869\"  data-\/>Image credit: EMSC<\/p>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<p>1 M6.7 earthquake near east coast of Honshu, Japan \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/earthquake.usgs.gov\/earthquakes\/eventpage\/us6000sxwq\/executive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">USGS<\/a> \u2013 May 15, 2026<\/p>\n<p>2 M6.7 earthquake near east coast of Honshu, Japan \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emsc-csem.org\/Earthquake_information\/earthquake.php?id=1995276\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">EMSC<\/a> \u2013 May 15, 2026<\/p>\n<p>3 M6.7 earthquake near east coast of Honshu, Japan \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsunami.gov\/events\/PHEB\/2026\/05\/15\/26135000\/1\/WEPA42\/WEPA42.txt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">PTWC<\/a> \u2013 May 15, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The epicenter was located 49 km (31 miles) ESE of \u014cfunato (population 35 452), 52 km (32 miles)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1217,8,3276,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-23031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-earthquakes","9":"tag-japan","10":"tag-japan-earthquake","11":"tag-nihon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}