As the frantic search for survivors continues, more than a dozen communities remained isolated by landslides and blocked roads in central Japan, where the 7.5-magnitude quake struck on Monday.
The powerful main tremor, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, injured at least 330 people, local authorities said.
Authorities also published a list on Thursday of 51 people whose whereabouts could not be confirmed.
Further scenes of destruction were seen by AFP in the coastal town of Anamizu, including cars crushed under crumbling concrete and whole facades torn off three-storey structures.
Thousands of soldiers, firefighters and police officers from across Japan combed through the rubble of collapsed wooden houses and toppled commercial buildings for signs of life.
Around 29,000 households were without electricity in Ishikawa prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast, and more than 110,000 homes across Ishikawa and two neighbouring regions had no water.
Access was blocked to small communities in the hardest-hit Noto Peninsula region -- with 300 people desperately waiting for aid at a school in the town of Ooya in the Suzu area.
"Even if I give my food to my children, it is not enough at all. I have eaten almost nothing for the past two days," a woman in her 30s with three children in Suzu told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
- 'Critical' 72 hours -
In the city of Nanao, police managing traffic told drivers that one of the main roads leading to Wajima -- where a huge fire razed a whole area of traditional wooden houses -- had been prioritised for emergency vehicles.
"Either reconsider carrying on, or risk facing a huge traffic jam ahead," an officer was heard warning drivers, approaching them one by one.
At a nearby gas station, a long queue of cars was waiting outside for it to open as the clock ticked past 8 am.
Although there were no fuel shortages at the station for now, workers there told AFP they were rationing gas nonetheless.
Monday's main shockwave triggered tsunami waves at least 1.2 metres (four feet) high in Wajima, and a series of smaller tsunamis were reported elsewhere.
Broadcaster NHK reported that one person was swept away by the tsunami in Noto's Suzu area, with the coast guard investigating.
"This is a very difficult situation. But from the viewpoint of protecting lives, I ask that you make every effort to save and rescue as many lives as possible by this evening, when the critical 72 hours of the disaster will have passed," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a government meeting on Thursday.
He was due to speak again in the afternoon, 72 hours after the main quake hit -- a timeframe when the hope of finding survivors typically fades.
Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year and most cause no damage, with strict building codes in place for more than four decades.
Earthquakes have hit the Noto region with intensifying strength and frequency over the past five years.
The country is haunted by a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.
It also swamped the Fukushima atomic plant, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
Soup and sympathy at Japan quake shelters
Anamizu, Japan (AFP) Jan 3, 2024 -
Seeking food, company and a safe roof over their heads, people from all walks of life were sheltering at community halls after a major earthquake levelled their homes in central Japan.
At one hall in the town of Anamizu, residents huddled together on makeshift beds made of cardboard boxes, warming themselves by stoves and rehashing the New Year's Day catastrophe that killed at least 62 people and laid waste to the region.
"I want to go back home soon, but I have no idea what the road situation is now, and neither do people who manage the facility here," said Nobuo Takahata, 68, who was visiting from the neighbouring region of Toyama when the quake hit.
Takahata was with his family, having weathered a harrowing night in their car before arriving at the shelter.
But others were by themselves, gazing ruefully out windows or perusing local newspapers featuring giant pictures of collapsed buildings and raging fires.
A whiteboard detailed what rationed items were available, including water, powdered milk, onigiri rice balls, blankets and women's sanitary products.
Soup, with a warning for those with food allergies, was also available, as were steamed buns for locals braving the cold in long queues outside.
- 'The big one' -
Takahata was driving when the quake began.
"The first shake was rather small so I pulled over. After a short while, I began driving again when the big one hit," he told AFP.
He was able to safely stop the car, but the road was split open by the quake.
"If I had been less lucky, I could've fallen into that hole in the road and died," he said.
Unable to return home, he had to spend the first night after the disaster in a car with his pregnant wife and daughter, turning the engine on and off to keep warm.
Since they were visiting from out of town, they had no supplies and had to share a single bottle of water between them.
We "took sips of it together to survive", he said, adding that running the heater in the car for warmth made them thirsty.
At another shelter in the city of Nanao, 75-year-old Yoko Demura explained that her home had been reduced to rubble.
"I can never go back there. It's unlivable now. It makes me sad and I will miss it.
"I never expected to lose our home like this, but there is nothing we can do," she said.
- Roads blocked -
All around the Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast, buildings have been flattened and roads hit by landslides and fallen trees. Cellphone coverage was patchy.
In the city of Wajima, a huge fire laid waste to several hundred structures and a seven-storey building toppled over.
In Suzu, tsunami waves spilled fishing boats on the shore.
Heavy rain pounded the region on Wednesday, making conditions more treacherous and raising the risk of additional landslides even as aftershocks continued.
Sirens blared as emergency vehicles tried to get to those in need.
"My house itself didn't crumble down, but inside, everything fell over. It's a mess," Yuko Okuda, 30, told AFP at another shelter in Anamizu that in normal times is a municipal office.
"The cold and the lack of food are my biggest concerns now," Okuda said, adding that her four-year-old son was allergic to eggs so could not eat the food rations provided.
"So he's basically subsisting on snacks we had brought from home.
"Of course I eventually hope to return to our home but for now, what I want is to make my life here just a bit more liveable."
Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
