Kumamoto quake widens impact on logistics and telecoms

2026-07-29

Logistics firms suspend pickups and deliveries

Following the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck Kumamoto Prefecture on the 28th, disruptions to logistics and communications are spreading across business activity. Nippon Express, Yamato Transport, Sagawa Express and Japan Post have successively restricted deliveries and pickups, while mobile and fixed-line services have also been hit.

On the 29th, Nippon Express will suspend pickup and delivery services for the day in some areas of Kumamoto Prefecture, excluding Amakusa and other cities. Yamato Transport has stopped accepting parcels nationwide for shipments to and from Kumamoto Prefecture and has suspended pickups and deliveries within the prefecture. Parcels for Kumamoto accepted on the 27th and 28th will be returned to senders. It will not deliver parcels that arrived at branches in the prefecture by the 28th, but will still accept customer collection at the destination side.

Sagawa Express has suspended pickups and deliveries on the 29th in areas across the prefecture, including Minami Ward in Kumamoto City and Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture. Japan Post has also stopped accepting Yu-Pack and other parcels to and from all of Kumamoto Prefecture. Window services were suspended at all post offices in the prefecture on the 29th, and while mail can still be posted, collection from mailboxes and other locations had also stopped as of 9 a.m. that day.

Outages spread to more than 100 base stations

Disruptions to communications are also widening. At SoftBank, service became difficult to use in parts of Kumamoto Prefecture from the early hours of the 29th. The four carriers together have more than 100 damaged base stations, and each is rushing measures such as network sharing.

According to SoftBank, from around 2:30 a.m. on the 29th, communication services became unavailable or difficult to use in some areas of the prefecture. Batteries were depleted in areas where power outages caused by the quake are continuing, and 10 base stations in the prefecture have gone offline. NTT Docomo and two other carriers were also experiencing disruptions to mobile services as of the 28th, while more than 80 base stations in the prefecture have been damaged and taken offline at KDDI.

Fixed-line services have also been affected. At KDDI, more than 10,000 fiber-optic line services provided in the prefecture have been affected. At NTT Docomo Business, more than 150 leased lines provided to companies and local governments in the prefecture have been impacted. Each company is offering disaster message services, while SoftBank and others have made public Wi-Fi free of charge. Since the 28th, network sharing has also been advancing under the emergency inter-carrier roaming framework known as JAPAN Roaming. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, NTT Docomo, Rakuten Mobile and NTT West have dispatched liaison officers to Kumamoto Prefectural Government and are handling the response.

Retail and manufacturing resume in part

Tsuruha Holdings said it will suspend operations on the 29th at three Drug Eleven stores in Kumamoto Prefecture, including the JR Kumamoto Station outlet. Other stores will resume operations once safety is confirmed, with staff being supplemented from other locations, and preparations are also under way to send supplies such as water.

Kura Sushi said on the 29th that it had resumed operations at five of its six stores in Kumamoto Prefecture that had been closed following the previous day's quake. That leaves only the Yatsushiro store closed after some fixtures fell.

Some manufacturing operations are also restarting. Toyota Motor Kyushu, Toyota Motor Corp's production subsidiary, resumed operations at three plants in Fukuoka Prefecture from the morning of the 29th. Operations from the evening of the same day onward will be decided later. Denso's plant in Kitakyushu is operating normally.

In transportation, JR Kyushu suspended all Kyushu Shinkansen services (Hakata-Kagoshima-Chuo) from the first train on the 29th. The suspension is due to inspections of tracks and equipment following the Kumamoto earthquake, and services between Kumamoto and Kagoshima-Chuo will be canceled for the entire day. The Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen is operating as normal.

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