{"id":68286,"date":"2026-08-03T13:19:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/68286\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T13:19:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T13:19:06","slug":"japanese-prime-minister-visits-southern-japan-as-earthquake-cleanup-continues-under-intense-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/68286\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese prime minister visits southern Japan as earthquake cleanup continues under intense heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets evacuees as she visits an evacuation center in Hikawa, southern Japan, Monday.Uncredited\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Residents in Japan\u2019s quake-hit southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto put out heaps of debris for collection as the region baked under intense heat.<\/p>\n

The heat and a lack of water supplies have added to the challenges in the severely damaged areas where Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi briefly visited for the first time since a magnitude 7.1 quake hit Kumamoto Prefecture on Japan\u2019s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Thirty-eight people died during the quake, including one who died of apparent heat stroke while taking shelter in a car in hot weather and one other whose cause of death is still being investigated, prefectural officials said Monday.<\/p>\n

Residents put out heaps of debris, broken furniture and damaged appliances for collection, while in the towns of Uki and Hikawa, construction of temporary housing began. Some hotels and inns are offering their rooms for evacuees.<\/p>\n

Rescuers in Japan comb through earthquake rubble as death toll rises Mari Yamaguchi<\/a><\/p>\n

More than 46,000 households remained without water and many also faced fuel shortages as the region suffers sweltering heat, stoking fears of heat-related illness. Japan Meteorological Agency predicted that temperatures would rise close to 40 C Monday.<\/p>\n

More than 8,500 people remain at crowded emergency shelters, such as converted community centres, school gyms and classrooms, many of which lack air-conditioning. Others are sleeping in cars at town hall parking lots and parks, or outside of their homes.<\/p>\n

Experts have long warned that inadequate shelter provision leads to crowded conditions and a lack of sanitation and privacy for people forced to leave their homes following disasters.<\/p>\n

Takaichi on Monday flew over the affected areas from an army helicopter and visited one of the area\u2019s best-equipped shelters, with cardboard beds, partitions and air-conditioning, triggering criticisms on social media that her visit distorted reality.<\/p>\n

Kumamoto Gov. Takashi Kimura, in his meeting with Takaichi, stressed the \u201cabnormal heat\u201d has been pounding on the already difficult lives of the residents. He sought further government support to improve the living conditions at evacuation centres, saying many of them lack clean water and medical care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile taking into consideration the governor\u2019s requests, we will quickly examine what the government can do for the disaster-hit region and affected people and move pro-actively,\u201d Takaichi said. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

People rest at an evacuation center in Uki, southern Japan, Sunday, after recent earthquakes.Yuta Omori\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a company that owned a general store in a collapsed shopping mall acknowledged that it had instructed two employees who were killed in a later explosion to return to the building to put sales proceeds into a safe.<\/p>\n

Two executives of Habita, a local general store operator that had a shop inside the collapsed Aeon Mall in the town of Kashima, attended the wake Sunday of one of the two victims, 22-year-old Kurumi Otake, and apologized to her parents for the death. <\/p>\n

Company sales manager Goji Yuse acknowledged that the company instructed the two to put sales proceeds into the safe if it was possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish someone had stopped her,\u201d Otake\u2019s tearful mother told them. \u201cMy daughter is not coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mall\u2019s operator said it believes the explosion was due to a gas leak and occurred after about 3,000 shoppers had been evacuated to a parking lot following the quake, but some employees remained inside. Rescuers recovered five people and the bodies of seven others from the mall.<\/p>\n

The earthquake has left 114 people injured across Kumamoto, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Some 700 homes were destroyed, and more than 11,300 buildings were damaged, according to Kumamoto prefecture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets evacuees as she visits an evacuation center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22309,22300,22310,212,22294,22311,1368,22293,22305,22306,22302,22295,22292,191,251,1729,22304,22299,22321,22296,22297,2752,8,17,22301,500,2164,22312,22298,22316,22317,22319,22314,22318,16714,22315,1258,14783,22308,180,22307,22313,3631,907,501,22303,8559,213,22320],"class_list":["post-68286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68286","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=68286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}