Japan braces for more quakes

TOKYO, July 05 (Reuters): Japan's government on Saturday warned of more possible strong earthquakes in waters southwest of its main islands, but urged the public not to believe unfounded predictions of a major disaster.

Authorities on Friday evacuated some residents from remote islands close to the epicentre of a 5.5-magnitude quake off the tip of the southernmost main island of Kyushu.

That quake on Thursday, strong enough to make standing difficult, was one of more than 1,000 tremors in the islands of Kagoshima prefecture in the past two weeks that have fuelled rumours stemming from a comic book prediction that a major disaster would befall the country this month.

"With our current scientific knowledge, it's difficult to predict the exact time, place or scale of an earthquake," said Ayataka Ebita, director of the Japan Meteorological Agency's earthquake and tsunami monitoring division, after a 5.4-magnitude quake shook the area again on Saturday.