Imagine trying to fall asleep while the ground won’t stop shaking.
That’s the harsh reality for residents of Japan’s remote Tokara Islands, where more than 1,000 earthquakes have rattled the region since June 21.
That includes a magnitude 5.5 tremor on Wednesday.
“It feels like it’s always shaking,” one exhausted local told MBC. “It’s very scary to even fall asleep.”
The Japan Meteorological Agency admits it doesn’t know when the tremors will stop.
“Seismic activity has been very active,” said Ayataka Ebita, head of the agency’s quake division.
He urged residents to prepare for potential evacuation.
These islands sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, so quakes aren’t new.
But the intensity and persistence of this swarm is anything but normal.
What’s Happening Now?
With limited infrastructure and no local hospital, emergency help is a six-hour ferry ride away.
Some families are already being evacuated.
Local guesthouses are turning away tourists — just in case they’re needed to shelter residents.
Officials are increasingly concerned.
A recent government report warned that a megaquake could strike Japan with devastating force.
It could potentially claim hundreds of thousands of lives.
For now, all islanders can do is wait, brace — and try to sleep through the shaking.
