Wajima, Jan. 4 -- The death toll has risen to 84 in the central Japanese prefecture of Ishikawa as of Thursday morning after a series of earthquakes of up to 7.6 magnitude struck the area on Jan 1.

The most stricken city in Ishikawa is Wajima with the most deaths registered, the national news agency Kyodo reported, citing local authorities.

According to the report, survival rates drop off 72 hours after a quake, stated the emergency responders.

So far, 156 people have been rescued and 179 others are still missing, according to authorities.

In a series of aftershocks, nearly 95,000 households, as of Thursday morning, suffered water outages in several parts of Ishikawa due to water pipe damage, according to a UNI report.

The land minis...