Japanese PM cancels Central Asia visit due to mega earthquake advisory

As Japan steps up its disaster preparedness following an advisory warning of a massive earthquake in a vast area along the Pacific coast, the country's prime minister has cancelled a planned trip to Central Asia next week, local media reported on Saturday.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida cancelled his planned four-day trip to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, Kyodo News reported stating that the step was taken a day after an advisory by the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The Japan Met department said a higher-than-usual probability of a megaquake is predicted around the Nankai Trough.

On Thursday, a powerful earthquake 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck off Japan's southern coast.

Japan's Met agency said tsunami waves of up 1.6 ft were detected along parts of Kyushu's southern coast and the nearby island of Shikoku about half an hour after the quake struck.

The quake most strongly shook Nichinan city and nearby areas in Miyazaki prefecture on Kyushu.

Japan's NHK public television said there were reports of broken windows at the Miyazaki airport near the epicentre.

Japan's weather agency also said that an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 jolted areas near Tokyo on Friday, adding that it appears not to be linked with the chance of a massive quake occurring from the Nankai Trough.

The quake, which struck at 7:57 p.m., measured at a lower 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in western Kanagawa Prefecture. The focus of the quake was 13 kilometres underground and no tsunami warning was issued.

Kyodo News reported that Central Japan Railway Co. temporarily halted its Tokaido Shinkansen Line bullet train service between Shinagawa and Shizuoka stations.

The Nankai Trough is an ocean-floor trench that runs along the Pacific coast of Japan, where the Eurasian and Philippine Sea tectonic plates intersect.

Japan, a quake-prone nation sits on the 'Ring of Fire' and as per experts say there is possibility of a magnitude 8 to 9 earthquake occurring along the Nankai Trough in the coming decades, with the potential of rattling a vast area of the country and engulfing areas with tsunami waves as high as over 30 meters.

An earthquake on 1 January this year in Japan's north-central region of Noto left an estimated over 240 people dead.