Authorities have called for the evacuation of an island in a remote island cluster in southwestern Japan after a 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck today and high seismic activity with more than 1,000 tremors in that area in less than two weeks.

Residents of Akuseki island, part of the Tokara island group in southern Japan, were urged to evacuate their homes and move “to a schoolyard on the island,” a municipal official told AFP.

Authorities made the request to the 89 residents of Akuseki after a 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck near the island today. An earthquake of similar magnitude was also recorded yesterday, Wednesday.

No significant damage has been reported from today’s earthquake.

Earlier Reuters had reported, citing Japan’s Meteorological Agency, that the epicenter of today’s quake was located off the coast of the Tokara island complex in Kagoshima prefecture, nearly 1,200 kilometers (1,200 miles) from Tokyo, and that no tsunami warning had been issued.

The earthquake’s focal depth was estimated at 20 kilometers, with a seismic intensity of “low 6” based on Japan’s seven-degree scale on Akuseki Island, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

This seismic intensity is classified at the level that it is “difficult for a human being to remain standing”, according to the agency.

More than 1,031 tremors of seismic intensity 1 or greater on the Japanese scale have been recorded around this island cluster between June 21 and July 3.

Seven of the twelve islands of Tokara are inhabited, with a total population of about 700.

“In the zones where the tremors were strong, the risk of house collapses and landslides is increased,” warned Ayataka Ebita, the director of the Japan Meteorological Agency’s earthquake and tsunami observation service.

“Be vigilant for earthquakes of similar magnitude in the near future,” he added, noting, however, that there is no risk of a tsunami after today’s quake.

A similar period of intense seismic activity was recorded in the Tokara island complex in September 2023, when 346 earthquakes were recorded, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

With its 125 million people, Japan is located where four major tectonic plates meet, at the heart of the Pacific’s “ring of fire”, 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.

In 2011 a magnitude 9.0 earthquake caused a tsunami with 18,500 dead or missing and destruction at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.