More than 470 consecutive earthquakes have struck since Saturday in a remote island cluster in southern Japan, the National Weather Service said today, urging residents to be vigilant.

No significant damage has been reported following this series of earthquakes of at least one degree on the seven-degree Japanese scale, which were only slightly felt by those inside buildings.

The strongest earthquakes recorded since Saturday were two of 5.1 magnitude, one on Sunday and the other on Tuesday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said in a statement that it had observed 474 earthquakes around the Tokara island complex south of Kyushu, at the southwestern tip of Japan.

“Seismic activity has increased. Given that this area has experienced prolonged periods of seismic activity in the past, please be vigilant against strong earthquake tremors,”the Japanese agency noted.

In the past, the Tokara island complex region has experienced a large number of earthquakes in a short period of time, most notably in September 2023, when 346 earthquakes were recorded over a 15-day period, according to Japanese public network NHK.

Of the 12 islands in the Tokara complex, seven are inhabited by about 700 people and some of them, which have active volcanoes, are accessible by ferry twice a week in good weather.

With its 125 million people, Japan is located where four major tectonic plates meet, at the heart of the “ring of fire” of the Pacific, making it one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world.

The archipelago records about 1,500 earthquakes a year and accounts for about 18% of the world’s earthquakes.

On January 1, 2024, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake, the strongest to hit the country in over 10 years, struck the South Peninsula in central Japan. It claimed the lives of 470 people, including many elderly residents who died in the days that followed.