A bright red paper with the word kiken (dangerous) printed in bold black letters is posted at the entrance of a house in the quake-hit town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, where 5,400 structures — half of the town's buildings — have been damaged.

Handwritten below is a warning that the house may collapse since its walls are leaning. The early signs of cracking are already visible.

On Wednesday, the couple who lives there returned from the nearby city of Yatsushiro in the prefecture, where they had evacuated, to allow experts to asses the home to see if it was safe enough to live in. Unfortunately, the answer was no.