TOKYO, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Japan Meteorological Agency on Thursday ended its week-long alert for a massive earthquake, but authorities are calling on people to remain cautious.
The Nankai Trough megaquake advisory, issued last Thursday hours after a 7.1-magnitude quake jolted southwestern Japan, was lifted at 5 p.m. local time after the confirmation of no new major seismic activities around the Nankai Trough.
With the epicenter of last Thursday's quake located in waters off Miyazaki Prefecture, on the western edge of the Nankai Trough, experts advised that the risk of a megaquake hitting somewhere along the trough became relatively higher.
Over the past week, the megaquake advisory, the first of its kind since the system was implemented in 2017, prompted the central government and local communities to intensify disaster preparations, amid disruptions for some tourism businesses during the summer holiday season.
As the advisory, which asked 707 municipalities in 29 prefectures from Tokyo to Okinawa to stay prepared for a possible disaster, came to an end, residents were urged to remain cautious of massive quake risks in the future. ■