From the Mainichi Shimbun ("Daily Newspaper")

A fairly strong earthquake jolted the Satsuma district of Kagoshima Prefecture on Saturday afternoon, the Meteorological Agency said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to properties, police said. No tsunami warning was issued following the quake.

The temblor that struck at 1:28 p.m. registered 4 on the 7-point Japanese intensity scale in Akune, Kagoshima Prefecture, and 3 in the Kumamoto Prefecture cities of Yatsushiro and Hitoyoshi and the Kagoshima Prefecture city of Sendai.

The focus of the earthquake, which measured an estimated 4.9 on the open-ended Richter scale, is located to be about 10 kilometers below the ground of Kagoshima Prefecture, the agency said. (Mainichi Shimbun, April 12, 2003)

Satsuma-gun is immediately north of my district, Hioki gun.