35 Dead in Kumamoto Earthquake in Japan... Surge in Heatstroke Cases Amid Heatwave

9,134 Evacuated, 79,000 Households Without Water
Toyota, Nissan, and Others Extend Factory Shutdowns

As of July 31, the fourth day since the strong earthquake hit Japan's Kumamoto, the earthquake-related death toll has risen to 35. With water outages and a heatwave in addition to the earthquake damage, local residents are facing increasing hardships.

According to local media including Kyodo News and NHK, Kumamoto Prefecture reported that as of this day, the number of deaths related to the earthquake increased by one from the previous day to a total of 35. This figure includes one fatality for whom the direct connection to the earthquake is still under investigation.

Earthquake damage site in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Provided by Yonhap News Agency

Seven people are confirmed to have died at "Aeon Mall Kumamoto," where a large explosion occurred, and nine people died at the Nippon Paper Industries plant in Yatsushiro following a chimney collapse.

As of 3 p.m. on this day, the number of evacuees stands at 9,134, all of whom are living in 374 shelters within Kumamoto Prefecture. Power supply has been cut off to 1,590 households, and approximately 79,000 households are experiencing water outages. The number of homes confirmed damaged so far has reached 1,500.

With earthquake damage continuing and the Kumamoto area experiencing a heatwave with daily highs exceeding 35 degrees Celsius, cases of heatstroke are reportedly increasing rapidly.

According to local fire authorities, between July 29—the day after the earthquake—and the following two days, 42 residents from affected areas in Kumamoto Prefecture were transported to hospitals due to heatstroke.

The Japanese Ministry of the Environment and the Meteorological Agency have issued a heatstroke warning for Kumamoto Prefecture. Both major and minor aftershocks also continue without letup. From July 28, when the magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck, until 3 p.m. on this day, there have been a total of 300 earthquakes with a seismic intensity of 1 or greater observed.

The ongoing suspension of operations at major industrial facilities in the Kumamoto region—including those in the automobile and semiconductor sectors—is expected to further increase the extent of damage to the industry.

Toyota has announced that it will extend the suspension of operations at its three plants in Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu, until late night on August 5. Toyota, which halted operations at these factories beginning on July 28, had initially planned to resume production today, but postponed the schedule after considering safety as well as logistics and supplier circumstances.

Nissan Motor and Daihatsu Motor have also decided to suspend factory operations until August 5. Nissan's production facilities are located in Fukuoka Prefecture, while Daihatsu has plants in both Fukuoka and Oita Prefectures.

Sony Semiconductor Solutions, the semiconductor subsidiary of Sony Group, will gradually resume operations at its Kikuyo Town plant in Kumamoto Prefecture from August 4, after stopping production there since July 28 due to the earthquake's impact.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.