Rescue workers in Kumamoto continued searching for survivors four days after the magnitude-6.8 earthquake, battling temperatures nearing 38°C and a relentless sequence of aftershocks that have now numbered close to 400. [1]

The death toll stood at 36 confirmed, with more than 79,000 households still without running water — a compound crisis that has turned summer heat into a secondary killer. Forty-two heatstroke hospitalizations have been reported. [1]

The Aeon Mall in Kashima Town, where a partial collapse trapped dozens of workers on Tuesday, remained the focal point of search operations. Police conducted a thorough search of the building on July 31, and officials said all known individuals trapped in the structure had been rescued dead or alive by August 1. [1]

In Uki City, rescuers pulled a man in cardiac arrest from a closed commercial facility, where he had been trapped beneath a collapsed wall. [1] The earthquake struck at 4:27 p.m. on July 28, producing the highest intensity on Japan's seismic scale — Shindo 7 — in Uki City and Hikawa Town.

Defense Minister Shinjirō Koizumi said approximately 300 air conditioning units would be sent to the worst-hit areas. The Japanese government approved more than 24 billion yen ($153 million) from its contingency fund for disaster relief. [1]

Prime Minister Takaichi visited Kumamoto on August 3, conducting an aerial inspection and meeting evacuees in Hikawa. "There are still people waiting to be rescued, and we are fighting against the clock," she said. [1]

The compound hazard — earthquake damage inside a heat wave — has exposed vulnerabilities in Japan's disaster preparedness model. The 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes killed more than 50 people and caused extensive damage to the same region, but that disaster occurred in April, before the summer heat. This time, evacuees sleeping in vehicles and shelters face exposure to temperatures above 35°C without adequate water. [1]

The number that matters most is not the toll but the 79,000 households without water in summer heat. Factory shutdowns have spread across the region, hitting the chip sector as semiconductor plants were forced offline. [1]

-- KENJI NAKAMURA, Tokyo