Felt an earthquake in Japan? Find out what happened
What to do first, how to locate a fresh report and how to compare the epicentre, magnitude and local Shindo observations.
A JISHINDESU editorial guide based on the cited official and primary materials. It does not replace official safety information.
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Take care of safety first
If shaking is still happening, do not check the map. Protect your head from falling objects and do not rush outside during strong shaking.
Near the coast, after strong shaking or weak but prolonged swaying, immediately head to safe higher ground or a designated tsunami evacuation site. Do not wait for a warning, map or notification. Act on a tsunami warning or evacuation instruction even if you felt no shaking. During a tsunami advisory (津波注意報), leave the water and move away from the shore. Do not return to the water or shore while tsunami warnings or advisories remain in force; follow local instructions. Read the report only once you are safe.
Once you can safely use your phone, JISHINDESU can help identify the report that corresponds to what you felt.
Choose the last 24 hours and “Readings nearby”
Use your current location, choose a saved place, search for the municipality or set the point manually. Under “Location and filters”, select a sufficient radius, choose the last 24 hours and switch to “Readings nearby”. The newest matching event should appear near the top of the list.
Open its card and compare JST origin time, epicentre, magnitude, depth and maximum Shindo. The origin time matters more than when you noticed a notification or social-media post.
Find the observation nearest to you
Maximum Shindo is the highest value in the full report and may have occurred far from you. In the observation list, find your municipality or the nearest mapped station.
If no station appears in your exact neighbourhood, that does not mean the shaking was not real. Ground conditions, building construction and floor level affect how motion feels, while the report represents specific measurement points.
To show someone this exact event, use “Share” on its card. “Share this point” in the map panel sends the selected location and radius instead of a particular report.
A report may appear or change after a short delay
JMA issues information in stages, and JISHINDESU retrieves it through its data sources. Immediately after shaking, the report may still be incomplete; magnitude, depth and observations can be revised later.
Further earthquakes are possible after a strong event. Do not interpret the first report as an all-clear; continue to follow JMA and local instructions.