Earthquakes in Japan, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 4,694 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in or off Japan. 7 of them reached magnitude 7 or more; the strongest was a magnitude 7.6 on December 8, 2025 (2025 Aomori Prefecture, Japan Earthquake).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded 23 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
The latest: magnitude 4.5 on October 12 (53 km S of Kushiro, Japan). The strongest: magnitude 5.3 on October 1 (0 km NNE of Yōkaichiba, Japan).
What the record holds
The deadliest was not the strongest: a magnitude 7.5 on January 1, 2024 (2024 Noto Peninsula, Japan Earthquake), for which NOAA records 549 deaths. 20 earthquakes here in these years are on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records deaths in 9 of the events here, 644 in all. The latest on NOAA’s list is a magnitude 6.8 on July 28, 2026 (The 2026 Kumamoto Region, Japan Earthquake). NOAA lists 17 tsunamis that began in or off Japan, and 2 from elsewhere that reached it with deaths or a metre of water or more. The highest water NOAA records here was 11.34 m, on January 1, 2024. The deadliest here came on July 29, 2025 from a magnitude 8.8 earthquake (Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia): NOAA’s runup records count one death in Japan. NOAA lists 2 significant eruptions of 2 volcanoes in or off Japan. The largest was Kusatsu-Shiranesan on January 23, 2018, at 1 on the volcanic explosivity index. It killed one person by NOAA’s count.
The events
- July 28, 2026Earthquake · M 6.8The 2026 Kumamoto Region, Japan Earthquake · 38 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- April 20, 2026Earthquake · M 7.4102 km ENE of Miyako, JapanUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- December 8, 2025Earthquake · M 7.62025 Aomori Prefecture, Japan EarthquakeUSGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- July 29, 2025Tsunami · 1.3 m hereKamchatka Peninsula, Russia · one death here (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 1, 2024Earthquake · M 7.52024 Noto Peninsula, Japan Earthquake · 549 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 1, 2024Tsunami · 11.34 m hereW CoastNOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- March 16, 2022Earthquake · M 7.357 km ENE of Namie, Japan · 4 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- February 13, 2021Earthquake · M 7.173 km ENE of Namie, Japan · one death (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- September 5, 2018Earthquake · M 6.627 km ESE of Chitose, Japan · 44 deaths (NOAA)USGS · NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
- January 23, 2018Eruption · VEI 1Kusatsu-Shiranesan · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
Good to know
- An event counts for Japan when it began inside its borders, or at sea within 100 km of its coast (so one can count for two neighbours), or further out, up to 300 km, where Japan is the nearest country.
- USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
- NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
- Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
- A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
- The map frames the box around Japan, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
- Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.
How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history