The Pokémon Company Donates $614,000 to Japan’s Kumamoto Region Following Deadly Earthquake
The Pokémon Company has announced a ¥100 million (approx. $610,000 USD / £460,000 GBP) contribution to support the people and communities affected by the deadly earthquake that struck Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture on July 28, 2026.
The magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck the Kumamoto region at 4:27 PM JST at a depth of approximately 16 km, producing the maximum level 7 reading on Japan’s seismic intensity scale in Uki and Hikawa and leading the Japan Meteorological Agency to officially name the disaster the Reiwa 8 Kumamoto Earthquake.
The disaster caused widespread destruction across the region, flattening homes, damaging roads and railway lines, and leaving more than 10,000 people in evacuation shelters, while nearly 23,000 households were without electricity and around 74,800 had lost access to running water as of the morning of July 30.
One of the most serious incidents took place at AEON Mall Kumamoto in Kashima, where around 3,000 customers were evacuated before an explosion caused part of the second floor to collapse with employees still inside, leaving six of the 11 people recovered from the wreckage dead by early July 30.
The destruction of the mall carried added significance for the local community, as it had only reopened on June 13 following a major redevelopment presented as a fresh start ten years after the same site was heavily damaged during the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes.
Elsewhere in the prefecture, a chimney collapsed at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro, killing eight workers and leaving another missing, while rescue teams continued searching damaged factories, homes and other structures amid repeated aftershocks.
The latest earthquake has brought renewed trauma to a region still shaped by the 2016 disaster, which resulted in 275 deaths, injured 2,739 people and damaged almost 200,000 homes across Kumamoto Prefecture.
The Pokémon Company’s contribution will be distributed through relief funds for Kumamoto Prefecture and the Japanese Red Cross Society, alongside donations to organizations directly supporting affected communities.
In its announcement, the company offered its condolences to everyone affected and said the funding is intended to assist both immediate relief efforts and the longer process of restoring and rebuilding the disaster-hit region.
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