New Delhi, March 31 -- A "megaquake" and subsequent tsunami could cause as many as 298,000 deaths in Japan and damage costing up to $2 trillion, the government said Monday in a new estimate. The warning follows a magnitude 7.1 jolt in southern Japan which injured 14 people in 2024. The Japanese government also mentioned that it is likely to see 1.23 million evacuees or 10 per cent of its total population, in the event of the probable 'megaquake'.

Japan had issued its first ever advisory in August 2024 for a potential "megaquake" along the Nankai Trough, a 900-kilometre undersea fault stretching from Shizuoka to Kyushu. The megaquake rules were drawn up after the devastating 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Tokyo'...