A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Kumamoto Prefecture on Japan's southern island of Kyushu on 29 July 2026, killing at least 13 people and leaving others missing or trapped under rubble. Soldiers and emergency workers are racing to reach survivors at a collapsed shopping mall and a paper factory, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warning it remained "a race against time" to find those still waiting to be rescued.

The quake hit hardest in the towns of Kashima and Yatsushiro, where the second floor of an Aeon Mall collapsed following a suspected gas leak explosion, and seven people were feared trapped at a Nippon Paper Industries factory, where two survivors and two bodies have so far been recovered. Around 36,900 homes lost electricity and 9,500 lost gas, communications were disrupted in places, and more than 9,000 residents were evacuated to over 500 shelters. Bullet train services and some flights were suspended, and stone walls were damaged at Kumamoto Castle, which was still being repaired after a 2016 earthquake that killed at least 50 people a decade earlier.