An earthquake of magnitude 5.7 struck the Tokai region before dawn on November 8, injuring at least 19 people in Aichi Prefecture and delivering the prefecture its first upper-5 shaking on the Japanese seismic scale in about 30 years, FNN Prime Online reported.
The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded the quake at 1:04 a.m. It registered upper 5 in Chita, Aichi Prefecture, and lower 5 in Toyota, Seto and Ena in Gifu Prefecture. Shaking of 4 was felt in Nagoya's Chikusa Ward and in Toyohashi.
The agency later reviewed its data and revised the epicenter to eastern Aichi Prefecture from western Shizuoka Prefecture.
Residents in Chita said the shaking felt far longer than it lasted. "It felt like about 20 seconds, though it was probably really about 10," one said. "It was long and it felt big."
Glass falls at a school and books at a bookstore
In Toyohashi, where shaking reached 4, a car dealership's show window shattered and glass scattered into the street. A glass-block wall on the second floor of a primary school in Higashiura, also hit by 4, collapsed into a first-floor hall and split a long table in two.
The school, Unosato Elementary, closed for the day on November 9 while repairs went ahead. "I'm glad it happened when no children were there," the principal said. "If it had hit someone, it would have been terrible."
Some areas lost water or saw it run cloudy, and the town handed out supplies. "I came to get water because a water truck was here," one resident said. "I was asleep when it hit, and I jumped up in shock."
At a bookstore in Toyota, books poured off the shelves until there was barely room to walk. A clock in the store had stopped just past 1 a.m.
In Hekinan, a woman in her 50s broke a bone when she fell while evacuating. Train services on JR Central conventional lines and Meitetsu railways were suspended from the first departures, and shinkansen trains ran at reduced speed.
Experts see little direct link to the Nankai Trough
Experts said the quake is unlikely to have a direct effect on a feared Nankai Trough earthquake — the major rupture expected off Japan's Pacific coast — but warned that residents should not treat this as a sign that they can relax. They urged households to prepare early rather than assume they are safe.