Four days, almost 200 earthquakes and the ground is still shaking.
That's been life lately for residents of the Tokara Islands, a small chain that falls within Kagoshima Prefecture. But officials and experts say the quakes are not necessarily a cause for alarm.
The Meteorological Agency said it doesn't know what exactly is causing the mostly small quakes but added that they may continue for about a week. The cluster of temblors began on Saturday. On Sunday, the largest to date — 4.8 magnitude quake measuring 4 on Japan's shindo intensity scale — was on Akuseki Island, home to 60 people. Monday and Tuesday saw quakes hitting shindo 3, but the remainder have been shindo 1 or 2.