2025 Japan Earthquake

The 2025 Japan Earthquake refers to a major offshore earthquake that struck near Aomori Prefecture in northeastern Japan on 8 December 2025.

The 2025 Japan Earthquake was a major offshore earthquake that struck near Aomori Prefecture in northeastern Japan on 8 December 2025. It generated small tsunamis, caused injuries and building damage, and led to a short-lived tsunami warning and an unusual subsequent advisory about the risk of a larger earthquake.

Earthquake and location

The main shock occurred offshore in the Pacific near Aomori Prefecture on 8 December 2025. Seismological reporting identified it as a thrust-fault earthquake with a magnitude around 7.6 and a hypocentral depth of about 40.7 km.

Tsunami response

Japan issued tsunami warnings for coastal areas of Aomori, Iwate, and Hokkaido, later downgrading some alerts to advisories as wave heights proved smaller than initially feared. Recorded tsunami heights reached up to 70 cm.

Impact and damage

Official and media reports described dozens of injuries, building damage, temporary transport disruption, and outages in parts of northeastern Japan. No fatalities were reported in the cited sources.

Subsequent advisory

After the quake, authorities issued a subsequent earthquake advisory for the northern Pacific coast, warning of elevated risk of another strong earthquake in the following days. The advisory was framed as a risk notice rather than a forecast.