where do most earthquakes happen in japan?
Hokkaido
entailment
 Japan has 108 active volcanoes . During the twentieth century several new volcanoes emerged , including Shōwa @-@ shinzan on Hokkaido and Myōjin @-@ shō off the Bayonnaise Rocks in the Pacific . Destructive earthquakes , often resulting in tsunami , occur several times each century . The 1923 Tokyo earthquake killed over 140 @,@ 000 people . More recent major quakes are the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake , a 9 @.@ 0 @-@ magnitude quake which hit Japan on March 11 , 2011 , and triggered a large tsunami . Japan is substantially prone to earthquakes , tsunami and volcanoes due to its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire and has the highest natural disaster risk in the developed world . 

neutral
 The Fukushima Hamadōri earthquake was succeeded by a number of smaller tremors ; that same day , at least 11 earthquakes of magnitude 3 @.@ 5 Mj or higher were recorded near its epicentre . Of the series , the strongest registered at a magnitude of 5 @.@ 5 Mj and occurred within 3 @.@ 5 hours after the initial quake . A shallow magnitude 6 @.@ 0 Mw ( 6 @.@ 4 Mj ) earthquake and several smaller tremors struck the region on 12 April . 

neutral
 A total of seven people from other regions near the epicentre , including southern Ibaraki , Tochigi and Kanagawa prefectures , suffered minor injuries . Another person was injured during the magnitude 6 @.@ 0 ( Mw ) aftershock of 12 April . In a report from July 2011 , the Fire and Disaster Management Agency confirmed a death toll of four from the earthquake . 

neutral
 The earthquake struck in the late afternoon near a moderately populated region of the Fukushima Prefecture , although most structures around the epicentre were resistant to earthquake shaking . Focussed at an unusually shallow depth , the earthquake generated significant shaking throughout many adjacent prefectures . The strongest ground motion registered at severe ( MM VIII ) in Ishikawa town on the Mercalli intensity scale . Strong shaking ( MM VI ) spread through Iwaki , Sukawaga , Kuroiso , Ōtawara and Kitaibaraki , with light tremors ( MM IV ) felt in areas up to several hundred kilometres from the epicentre , including Tokyo and Yokohama . The earthquake cut electricity to about 220 @,@ 000 households , with most of the cuts reported in Iwaki city . Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant – distanced 70 km ( 43 mi ) from the epicentre – evacuated to safety , and external power to the plant was cut . The outage briefly disrupted cooling water injections into three of the reactors , but services to the plant were restored by 18 : 05 JST . Authorities at Tokyo International Airport closed all runways momentarily , while NTT DoCoMo restricted voice calls in 14 prefectures following the quake . East Japan Railway Company temporarily suspended its services to restart four of five bullet @-@ train lines ; other Shinkansen bullet trains in the region were also halted . 

neutral
 The earthquake sparked several fires in Iwaki , with one fire breaking out in Asakawa town . Fire engines extinguished a blaze in a liquefied natural gas tank at Daiichi Sankyo 's Onahama Plant . Most of the structural damage was due to scattered rock- and landslides along hillsides in the vicinity of Iwaki . A landslide crushed two vehicles and buried three homes in the city , trapping a number of the inhabitants . The incident resulted in two immediate deaths . Four people were critically injured and taken to hospital ; one of them was later pronounced dead . The Iwaki Ibaraki Route 14 interchange of the Jōban Expressway , which runs from Misato , Saitama , to Tomiya , Miyagi , was cut off to traffic by a large landslide of 120 m × 100 m ( 390 ft × 330 ft ) . In Tabito town , very close to the epicentre , a 170 m × 50 m ( 560 ft × 160 ft ) landslide resulted in the formation of a quake lake – a natural damming of a river by mass wasting – with a water level of 15 m ( 49 ft ) and a storage volume of 1 @,@ 000 – 2 @,@ 500 m3 ( 35 @,@ 000 – 90 @,@ 000 cu ft ) . Significant land deformation with traces of uplift was observed in and around town , affecting local roads but largely sparing its structures . 
