Arab News Japan

TOKYO: An earthquake with a seismic intensity of 3 occurred in the Tokyo area on Monday, affecting Saitama, Ibaraki, Chiba, and Tochigi prefectures, as well as Tokyo.

The epicenter of the 4.3 magnitude quake was in southern Ibaraki to the east of Tokyo at a depth of 50 kilometers. There was no danger of a tsunami.

Some media outlets have reported reporting rumors of a huge earthquake “coming by December” and that the recent quake with a seismic intensity of 5 as a trigger.

On October 7, a major earthquake in the Tokyo area caused train suspensions in Tokyo that prevented thousands of commuters from getting home. Infrastructure such as electricity and water were also hit directly, and the fragility of the urban infrastructure was highlighted again. 

Manabu Takahashi, a specially appointed professor at the Ritsumeikan University Pacific Rim Civilization Research Center, was quoted as saying: “I think that this earthquake is a foreshock of a huge M8 class earthquake that could be a major disaster in the Tokyo metropolitan area.” 

According to some researchers, “abnormalities” have already been confirmed deep underground in the Japanese archipelago since August, with the Pacific Plate has been moving.

The Tokyo area is a unique place where three plates, the Pacific plate, the North American plate, and the Philippine Sea plate, overlap. 

The recent quakes have been said to resemble the pattern that occurred before the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923.