TOKYO — Japanese authorities say 37 people have been confirmed dead from a powerful earthquake that struck the northern island of Hokkaido last week.

The Hokkaido government said Sunday that two people remain missing and one other person has no vital signs. Rescue workers are using backhoes and shovels to search for the missing in a tangle of dirt and the rubble of homes left by multiple landslides in the town of Atsuma. All but four of the victims are from the community of 4,600 people.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a hard-hit area of Sapporo, the main city in Hokkaido.

The magnitude 6.7 earthquake before daybreak Thursday knocked out power and train service across Hokkaido. It took two days to restore electricity to most of the island of 5.4 million people. </s> TOKYO (AP) — Japanese authorities say 37 people have been confirmed dead from a powerful earthquake that struck the northern island of Hokkaido last week.

The Hokkaido government said Sunday that two people remain missing and one other person has no vital signs. Rescue workers are using backhoes and shovels to search for the missing in a tangle of dirt and the rubble of homes left by multiple landslides in the town of Atsuma. All but four of the victims are from the community of 4,600 people.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a hard-hit area of Sapporo, the main city in Hokkaido.

The magnitude 6.7 earthquake before daybreak Thursday knocked out power and train service across Hokkaido. It took two days to restore electricity to most of the island of 5.4 million people. </s> The death toll has hit 39 from a powerful earthquake that struck the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido last week.

One person remained missing in the town of Atsuma, where multiple landslides triggered by the quake slammed into houses at the foot of steep hills.

Rescue workers used diggers and shovels to search for the missing in a tangle of dirt, fallen trees and the rubble of homes left by the landslides. All but four of the victims were from Atsuma, a community of 4,600 people.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Kiyota ward on the eastern edge of Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido.

In some parts of Kiyota, the earth liquefied and sank as much as a metre, tilting houses, cracking roads and unleashing a mudflow that solidified and trapped vehicles in car parks.

The magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck before daybreak on Thursday and knocked out power and train service across Hokkaido, home to 5.4 million people.

It took two days to restore electricity to most households. A few hundred were still without power on Sunday, mostly in Atsuma.

About 2,600 people were staying in temporary shelters, down from a peak of 16,600, the Hokkaido government said. </s> TOKYO (AP) — The death toll has hit 39 from a powerful earthquake that struck the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido last week, authorities said Sunday. One person remained missing in the hard-hit town of Atsuma, where multiple landslides triggered by the quake slammed into houses at the foot of steep hills.

Rescue workers used backhoes and shovels to search for the missing in a tangle of dirt, fallen trees and the rubble of homes left by the landslides. All but four of the victims were from Atsuma, a community of 4,600 people.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited hard-hit Kiyota ward on the eastern edge of Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido. In some parts of Kiyota, the earth liquefied and sank as much as a meter (3 feet), tilting houses, cracking roads and unleashing a mudflow that solidified and trapped vehicles in parking lots.

The magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck before daybreak Thursday and knocked out power and train service across Hokkaido, home to 5.4 million people. It took two days to restore electricity to most households. A few hundred were still without power Sunday, mostly in Atsuma.

About 2,600 people were staying in temporary shelters, down from a peak of 16,600, the Hokkaido government said. </s> Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-10 17:59:29|Editor: Liangyu

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TOKYO, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the powerful earthquake striking Japan's Hokkaido last week rose to 44 on Monday, the government said, with thousands still displaced as aftershocks continued to rumble and powers supply remained unstable.

According to the local police and prefectural officials, the body of a 77-year-old man who was previously unaccounted for was found on Monday morning in the town of Atsuma at the site of a deadly landslide.

Two other bodies were found at the same site on Sunday, officials reported. There are now no reports of individuals missing and the search operations have officially been called off.

Japan's top government spokesperson, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, told a press briefing Monday that around 40,000 Self-Defense Force (SDF) personnel, police, firefighters continued to work on removing debris and clean-up operations.

He also confirmed that there were no more missing residents.

The majority of the fatalities were in Atsuma, where massive landslides buried and crushed homes, leaving around 36 people dead, public broadcaster NHK said on Monday.

As of Monday morning, around 2,700 people remained in evacuation shelters, with around 70 buildings destroyed, and 8,000 homes were still without water supply, the Hokkaido prefectural government said.

Hokkaido Governor Harumi Takahashi has called on the people and businesses of Hokkaido for their cooperation in using less power, as consumption must be reduced by 20 percent at peak-times to avoid blackouts in Japan's northernmost prefecture.

"It is extremely tough but if rolling blackouts or another power outage occurs, restoring lives and business activities to normal will be severely impacted," Takahashi was quoted as saying.

The electricity shortage could continue for up to a week according to Hokkaido Electric Power Co., as the Tomatoatsuma thermal power plant which was damaged by the quake and produces nearly 50 percent of Hokkaido's power, underwent repairs.

Hokkaido was rocked by an early morning 6.7-magnitude earthquake last Thursday.

Around 700 people have been injured as a result of the quake which was measured the maximum 7 on Japan's seismic intensity scale.

This marked the first time a quake in Hokkaido has registered this intensity level since the seismic scale was revised in 1996, Japan's weather agency said. </s> SAPPORO, Japan (AP) — Officials say 16 people died or are presumed dead after a powerful earthquake on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido unleashed scores of landslides, burying homes in avalanches of soil, rock and timber.

Searchers were digging through the mountains of debris Friday near a small mountain town hoping to find survivors, with 26 people still unaccounted for after the magnitude 6.7 quake struck early Thursday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said nearly half of the households have had their power restored after a day of island-wide blackouts.

The regional government said the bullet train to the provincial capital, Sapporo, was due to reopen later in the day. But damage to some parts of the city was severe, with houses atilt and roads crumbled or sunken. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Emergency crews are racing against the clock to find survivors

Rescuers continued to search for survivors of a powerful earthquake on Japan's island of Hokkaido, as the death toll rose to 16.

Dozens are still missing with many feared buried under rubble after the magnitude 6.7 quake triggered landslides.

Some 1.6 million residents across Hokkaido remain without power.

The quake is the second disaster to hit Japan this week, after a deadly typhoon lashed the country's west coast.

The earthquake struck early on Thursday and thousands of people spent the night in evacuation centres.

'I thought I would die'

The village of Atsuma was among the hardest hit, where roads and houses collapsed after huge landslides.

"We've heard there are people still stuck under the mud, so we've been working around the clock but it's been difficult to rescue them," a rescue worker in Atsuma told public broadcaster NHK.

One resident said: "It was horrendous. The land slid all the way down and I thought I would die. I thought my house would collapse."

Image copyright EPA Image caption With bad weather on the way, it is feared the landslides may continue

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Many residents are still missing

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed 16 people had been killed, many people injured, and 26 remained missing.

"Please give your sympathy to people who spent a dark night in fear, and do everything you can to restore electricity as soon as possible," he instructed his ministers at an emergency cabinet meeting on Friday.

Authorities said it could take at least one week to restore power lines to the sparsely populated countryside.

With bad weather expected over the next days, officials are warning people to remain cautious and be prepared for aftershocks.

Transport to resume

The island's main airport resumed flights on Friday and train services are also scheduled to restart before the weekend.

The quake also affected several manufacturers on the island. Operations at Toyota plant will be suspended until power is restored, the carmaker said.

A football friendly between Japan and Chile scheduled for Friday has been called off.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The earthquake caused landslides which engulfed houses

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Japan is prone to earthquakes

The earthquake comes on the heels of a deadly typhoon lashing the west of Japan over the past few days.

Jebi, the strongest typhoon to hit the country in 25 years, killed at least 10 people and caused widespread damage and disruption.

Japan is one of the world's most seismically active nations and accounts for around 20% of quakes worldwide of magnitude 6.0 or more.

In June, a deadly tremor hit Osaka region, killing five and injuring more than 300 people. </s> The death toll from a powerful earthquake that hit Japan's Hokkaido Island last week has risen to 44, with 660 others injured.

Around 2,500 people remain in evacuation centres after the tremor on Thursday, according to Japanese officials.

Although electricity to the island has been restored, Japan's trade minister Hiroshige Seko called on both businesses and residents in Hokkaido to use 20 percent less energy to prevent further blackouts.

"It's very important now for all residents, businesses, the government, and electricity suppliers to work together towards this goal of 20 percent energy-saving," Seko told a news conference late on Sunday.

Power outages since the earthquake have hit businesses like Toyota, which over the weekend suspended production at most of its assembly plants.

The company said that it would resume production at its "parts factories" in Hokkaido during night shifts. The factories are responsible for building transmissions and other essential components.

Due to disruptions to its supply chain, Toyota is suspending production at 16 of 18 domestic car-assembly plants and the company says it will fully resume production by Thursday.

Japan is situated in the "Ring of Fire" arc of volcanoes and ocean trenches. The arc accounts for 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

This latest earthquake had a magnitude of 6.7. </s> Japanese rescue workers with bulldozers and sniffer dogs scrabbled through the mud Thursday to find survivors from a landslide that buried houses after a powerful quake, as the death toll rose to 16. Around 26 people are still unaccounted for in the small northern countryside town of Atsuma, where a cluster of dwellings were wrecked when a hillside collapsed with the force of the 6.6-magnitude quake, causing deep brown scars in the landscape. “We’ve heard there are people still stuck under the mud, so we’ve been working around the clock but it’s been difficult to rescue them,” a Self-Defence Force serviceman in Atsuma told public broadcaster NHK.

“We will take measures to find them quickly,” he added. One village resident said: “It was horrendous. The land slid all the way down and I thought I would die. I thought my house would collapse.” Around 1.6 million households in the sparsely populated northern island of Hokkaido were still without power after the quake damaged a thermal plant supplying electricity to the region.

According to Hokkaido Electric, power has been restored to 1.4 million houses — about 40 percent of the population — but authorities have warned it could take as long as a week to get the service fully back to normal. Some 22,000 rescue workers including troops called up from the Self-Defense Forces handed out emergency water supplies and long lines formed at petrol stations and supermarkets, as people stocked up fearing further quakes. “So far there are 16 (dead) people and many people injured, with 26 still missing,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a cabinet meeting to discuss the quake.

“Please give your sympathy to people who spent a dark night in fear, and do everything you can to restore electricity as soon as possible,” he instructed his ministers. The earthquake, which scored the maximum on a Japanese scale measuring the power of a quake’s shaking, also collapsed a handful of houses and walls in the main city of Sapporo. However, considering the strength of the quake, the death toll was relatively light, with the majority of victims coming from the landslide in Atsuma.

Transport services were gradually coming back on line with bullet trains expected to resume operations later Friday morning and the main airport in Sapporo beginning to process passengers after cancelling all flights the day before. But a football friendly between Japan and Chile in Sapporo planned on Friday was scrapped due to the transport and power chaos in Hokkaido. The quake was the latest in a string of natural disasters to batter the country. Western parts of the country are still recovering from the most powerful typhoon to strike Japan in a quarter of a century, which claimed 11 lives and shut down the main regional airport. And officials warned of the danger of fresh quakes.

“Large quakes often occur, especially within two to three days (of a big one),” said Toshiyuki Matsumori, in charge of monitoring earthquakes and tsunamis at the meteorological agency. The risk of housing collapses and landslides had increased, he said, urging residents “to pay full attention to seismic activity and rainfall and not to go into dangerous areas”.

Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where many of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded. In June, a deadly tremor rocked the Osaka region, killing five people and injuring over 350. On March 11, 2011, a devastating 9.0-magnitude quake struck under the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and claimed thousands of lives.
The death toll from the earthquake in Hokkaido, Japan rises to 44. There are now no reports of individuals missing and the search operations have been called off.