Japan has lifted its warning of a possible “mega-earthquake” a week after it was issued.
The warning urged people to be vigilant but not to evacuate, saying the chance of a major earthquake was higher than normal but not imminent.
In response, thousands of Japanese people canceled planned trips and stocked up on necessities, while some bullet train services were also affected.
The Japanese government said it is no longer asking people to take special precautions and they are free to “return to their normal way of life”.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said as of Wednesday it had not detected any seismic activity indicating any worrying changes in the area where the major earthquake is believed to have occurred, Kyodo news agency reported.
Disaster management minister Yoshifumi Matsumura said that although last week’s warning was lifted, the risk of a major earthquake remained.
He said no abnormalities in “seismic activity and crustal deformation” had been detected, so the call for increased preparedness was lifted at 17:00 local time (09:00 BST).
“But that doesn’t mean the risk (of a major earthquake) has been eliminated,” he told reporters.
“We have asked for special precautions, such as sleeping while preparing for immediate evacuation. But we will no longer ask for these steps and the Japanese people can freely return to their normal lives,” he added.
The warning last week came hours after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck off the southern island of Kyushu.
Experts were put on high alert because of the epicenter’s location – on the edge of the Nankai Trench, a seismically active area that stretches along Japan’s Pacific coast.
The tectonic plate boundary lies between Suruga Bay in central Japan and the Hyuganada Sea in Kyushu to the south.
Following last week’s warning, some stores have reportedly been forced to empty shelves or limit purchases of items such as bottled water.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has canceled a trip to Central Asia. Some high-speed trains have also slowed down as a precaution.
Previous Nankai Trough earthquakes have killed thousands of people. These major earthquakes occur every 90 to 200 years, with the last one occurring in 1946.
According to Kyodo News, experts say there is a 70% to 80% chance of a magnitude 8 or 9 earthquake occurring somewhere along the trough in the next 30 years. Worst-case estimates suggest that more than 200,000 people could be killed in the quake and the potential tsunami that follows.
