Rescue mission is continuing in south-western Japan in attempts to assist the victims after the region was hit by a powerful earthquake, a day after a deadly tremor happened.
Close to 20,000 troops have been deployed in the Kyushu region that has been hit by a 7.3-magnitude-quake in the early hours of Saturday.
The media reports say that at least 28 people have died while hundreds of others injured.
It is feared that dozens of people have been trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings. The quake that happened on Thursday killed 9 people.
It is reported that big landslides have occurred over a wide area and roads damaged. About 100,000 households have been cut from the supply of power and other 400,000 being forced to survive without water.
Heavy rains have been forecast and it is feared that they will trigger more landslide.
Collapsed dam
Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga said that extra troops are being sent to the area so as to help the police. “We are making every effort to respond.”
The second Japan earthquake – which hit at 01:25 on Saturday (15:25 GMT on Friday) at a depth of 10km (six miles) in the Kumamoto region – was much bigger and hit a wider area than the one that struck the city of Kumamoto on Thursday night.
The government has said that close to 2,000 people have received hospital treatment, with 190 of them being seriously injured.
There are many reports in which people have been trapped in the buildings.
NHK said that there is one village that had to be evacuated as a result of a dam collapsing.
Kumamoto prefectural official Tomoyuki Tanaka told AP that the death toll was climbing by the hour.
