TOKYO, Aug 9 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday canceled his planned four-day trip to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, as the weather agency warned that the risk of a potential massive earthquake in a vast area of the Pacific stretching from southwestern to central Japan has increased.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the first such advisory for areas around the Nankai Trough hours after a magnitude-7.1 quake hit the country's southwest on Thursday.
Kyodo news reported Kishida said at a press conference after attending a peace ceremony in Nagasaki marking the 79th anniversary of the US atomic bombing, that he canceled the foreign trip to "focus on the government's response and information dissemination" regarding a potential megaquake.
"As the top official in charge of the nation's crisis management, as an extra precaution, I should remain in Japan for at least about a week," while the weather agency is calling on the public to prepare for such a scenario, Kishida added.
Kishida was set to attend Japan's first-ever summit with the Central Asian nations -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on Friday night.
In Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar on Monday, the Japanese leader was slated to meet with the country's President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene.
-- BERNAMA-KYODO
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