If an earthquake happens while you are in Japan, the first information you get will not be a magnitude. It will be a shindo number, and the two are not the same measurement at all. Magnitude describes the earthquake; shindo describes what happened where you are standing. One earthquake produces one magnitude and dozens of different shindo values.
That difference is not academic. It changes what the announcement is telling you, and it explains why a number that sounds low on the news can still be the one that matters in your building. This guide covers how to read the scale, what the few seconds of early warning are for, and the one detail about hotel floors that almost nothing in English mentions.
Shindo is not magnitude
| Magnitude | Shindo (seismic intensity) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | The size of the earthquake itself | How strongly the ground shook at one place |
| How many values per quake | One | Many — one per measuring site |
| What it tells you | How big the event was | What your location experienced |
Japanese reporting leads with shindo because it is the number that answers the question a person in a building is actually asking. A distant, very large earthquake may register a low shindo where you are; a smaller, closer one may register a higher one. The magnitude is about the earthquake. The shindo is about you.
There are ten levels, not seven
The scale runs from 0 to 7, but levels 5 and 6 are each split in two, so the actual sequence is: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5-lower, 5-upper, 6-lower, 6-upper, 7.
What each level actually feels like
The agency publishes descriptions for every level. These are the official ones, not paraphrases:
| Shindo | What people notice |
|---|---|
| 0 | Imperceptible to people, but recorded by seismometers |
| 1 | Felt slightly by some people keeping quiet in buildings |
| 2 | Felt by many people keeping quiet indoors. Some may be awoken. Hanging lamps swing slightly |
| 3 | Felt by most people indoors, and by some people walking. Many are awoken. Dishes in cupboards may rattle |
| 4 | Most people are startled. Most sleepers wake. Lamps swing significantly, unstable ornaments may fall, drivers may notice the tremor |
| 5-lower | Many people are frightened and feel the need to hold onto something stable. Lamps swing violently; dishes and items on bookshelves may fall |
Two things stand out from that list. First, the lower levels are defined by people who are sitting still — if you are walking around a busy station, you may not notice a 2 or a 3 at all. Second, 4 is where objects start moving, and that is the level at which most visitors will first think something is happening.
Where 5-upper and above start to matter
The agency's table continues past the levels above, and the character of the descriptions changes: from 5-upper onward it stops describing how people feel and starts describing what happens to buildings, ground and infrastructure — separate columns cover reinforced-concrete buildings, ground and slopes, utilities and infrastructure, and large-scale structures. That shift is itself informative: below 5, the scale is about perception; at and above it, the scale is about damage.
Same number, different damage
The agency attaches an important caution to its own table: sites recording the same intensity will not necessarily suffer the same degree of damage. The effect depends on the amplitude, period and duration of the motion, on the type of construction, and on ground conditions. It also states that the listed phenomena are typical rather than guaranteed, and that actual damage may be greater or smaller.
In other words the scale is a description of shaking, not a prediction of consequences. That is worth holding onto when you read a number and try to picture what it means.
The number is measured somewhere else
This is the part that changes what you should do, and it comes straight from the agency's own notes on how intensity is observed.
Put those together and the consequence for a visitor is direct: on a high hotel floor you can feel noticeably more movement than the number being announced. The report is not wrong; it is measuring somewhere you are not.
The scale is checked against reality every few years
One detail that says something about how the scale is maintained. The agency states that the descriptions are built from actual damaging earthquakes in recent years, and that the content is reviewed at intervals of about five years — updated when new cases appear, or when improvements in the earthquake resistance of buildings mean the old descriptions no longer match what actually happens. The wording you read today is a description of a moving reality, not a fixed definition.
And it varies across a single city
The agency also states that seismic ground motion is significantly influenced by underground conditions and topography, and that intensity is the value at the site where the instrument stands — it may vary even within the same city. So "intensity 4 in Shinjuku" is a measurement at one point in Shinjuku, not a description of every street in it.
Why the reports arrive so fast
Japan can publish local intensity quickly because of how densely it measures. The agency runs a network of about 200 seismographs and 600 seismic intensity meters, and it also collects data from more than 3,600 further intensity meters operated by local governments and a national disaster research institute. When an earthquake occurs it issues the hypocenter, magnitude and observed intensity, and for anything at intensity 3 or above it publishes a seismic intensity report within a minute and a half.
The early warning gives you seconds, not minutes
The Earthquake Early Warning — kinkyu jishin sokuho — has been running publicly since October 1, 2007, delivered through television, radio and phones. What it does is narrow: it issues an alert just as an earthquake starts, and the agency describes its purpose as providing valuable seconds to protect yourself before the strong shaking arrives.
The alert sound is deliberately unmistakable
You will know it when you hear it: phones in a room all sound at once with the same tone, and broadcasts interrupt. It is designed to be impossible to mistake for anything else, precisely because the useful response has to be automatic. If every phone around you goes off simultaneously, that is what has happened — and reading the screen is not the first thing to do.
What to actually do, by situation
Nothing here is exotic. It is mostly about where you happen to be.
| Where you are | What to do |
|---|---|
| Hotel room | Get away from the window. Get under or beside something solid. Do not use the lift. Wait for the shaking to stop before moving |
| Restaurant or shop | Move away from shelves, glass and hanging fixtures. Staff are trained for this — follow what they do |
| Train or station | Hold onto something. Trains stop automatically; stopping is the system working, not a fault |
| Street | Move away from walls, signs and glass frontage. Open space is safer than a building edge |
| Near the coast | If shaking is strong or long, move to higher ground without waiting for a warning |
The thing not to do
The most common mistake is moving during the shaking — running for a door, a stairwell, or outside. Falling glass and signage make the area immediately outside a building one of the worse places to be, and a stairwell during motion is worse than the floor you are on. The sequence that actually works is simple: get low, get covered, stay put, then move once it has stopped.
After it stops
Three practical things. Keep your phone charged and keep a data connection — information arrives fastest that way, and our guide to eSIMs in Japan covers getting one that works on arrival. Have some cash, because card terminals depend on power and network (see cash and ATMs). And follow the building staff rather than improvising; hotels and stations have procedures and rehearse them.
Aftershocks are normal
Expect more shaking after a noticeable earthquake, sometimes for days. That is ordinary behavior rather than a sign of something worse coming, and the same response applies each time. What it does change is the practical advice above: keep the phone charged and keep some cash for longer than you would think necessary after the first one.
How much this should shape your trip
Honestly: very little. Earthquakes are a normal background condition here rather than an event you plan around, and the country is organized accordingly — the measuring network, the second-and-a-half reporting, the automatic train stops and the drilled staff all exist because this is routine.
What is worth doing is small and one-off: know that the number you hear is shindo, not magnitude; know that your floor shakes more than the announcement says; and know that the alert means drop, not run. That is the whole of it. Season and weather will affect your trip far more — see typhoon season and when to visit — and neither of those is a reason to stay away either. For everything else, our seven-day itinerary assumes a completely normal trip, because that is what almost every trip is.
Earthquakes in Japan FAQ
Why do Japanese earthquake alerts not give a magnitude?
What does the shindo scale actually go up to?
What does each shindo level feel like?
Is the shindo the same across a city?
Does it matter which floor of the hotel I’m on?
How much warning does the early warning system give?
How quickly is information published after a quake?
Does the same shindo always mean the same damage?
Bottom line (2026) — Japan reports shindo, not magnitude: it describes how hard the ground shook where you are, so one earthquake produces many values. The scale has ten steps (0–4, then 5-lower / 5-upper / 6-lower / 6-upper / 7), so "shindo 5" alone is never an official figure. The published number is measured at ground level while upper floors shake noticeably more — relevant if your room is high up. Intensity 3 and above is reported within 90 seconds, and the early warning buys you seconds, not minutes: it means get under cover where you are, not leave the building.
Sources
The structure of the seismic intensity scale, the official description of what is felt and observed at each level, the notes that intensity is measured at ground level or on the first floor of low-rise buildings, that it can vary within the same municipality, that shaking on upper floors is amplified, and that the same intensity does not imply the same damage: the Japan Meteorological Agency's published table explaining the JMA Seismic Intensity Scale, read in both its English and Japanese versions. The size of the observation network, the additional instruments operated by local governments and a national research institute, and the issuing of a seismic intensity report within a minute and a half for intensity 3 and above: the agency's page on monitoring of earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic activity. The purpose of the Earthquake Early Warning and its public launch on October 1, 2007: the agency's Earthquake Early Warning System page. All read on August 31, 2026. This is a summary of published official information, not emergency advice; in an actual emergency, follow the instructions of local authorities and the staff where you are.
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