Saturday, Dec 20, 2025 12:46 | 6 hours ago | By: EarthquakeMonitor
A shallow magnitude 5.2 earthquake was reported late at night near Nemuro, Nemuro-shi, Hokkaido, Japan.
According to Japan’s National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED), the quake hit on Saturday, December 20th, 2025, at 10:33 pm local time at a shallow depth of 14.80 km. Shallow earthquakes are felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.
Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should not have caused any significant damage, but was probably felt by many people as light vibration in the area of the epicenter.
Weak shaking might have been felt in Nemuro (pop. 31,200) located 84 km from the epicenter, and Hamanaka-sakuraminami (pop. 5,500) 99 km away.
VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you’re in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app. This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake.
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Earthquake data:
I felt this quake
Date & time: Dec 20, 2025 10:33 pm (GMT +10) local time (20 Dec 2025 12:33 GMT)
Magnitude: 5.2
Depth: 14.80 km
Epicenter latitude / longitude: 42.7°N / 146.15°E 
(Japan)
Primary data source: NIED
AloJapan.com