A road damaged by an earthquake in Sapporo. Photograph: Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images
Rescuers were rushing to unearth survivors and restore power after a powerful earthquake jolted Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido, buckling roads, knocking homes off their foundations and causing hillsides to collapse.
強烈的地震震動了日本最北端的北海道的主島嶼，道路被震彎，房屋從地基被震倒，山坡崩塌，救援人員火速趕到，挖掘倖存者並恢復電力。
Residents in Sapporo were shaken from their beds when the magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck at 3.08am. At least seven people were confirmed dead and around 30 people were unaccounted for.
當凌晨3點28分發生6.7級地震時，札幌（Sapporo）的居民從床上被震醒。 至少有7人被證實死亡，約30人下落不明。
Japan is used to dealing with disasters, but the last few months have brought a string of calamities.
日本習慣於應對災難，但最近幾個月來發生了一系列災難。
The quake came on the heels of a typhoon that triggered heavy flooding in western Japan and left the main airport near Osaka and Kobe closed after a tanker rammed a bridge connecting it to the mainland. The summer also brought floods from torrential rains in Hiroshima and extremely hot temperatures across the country.
地震發生之前，一場颱風引發了日本西部的嚴重洪災，，在一艘油輪撞毀了連接大陸的橋梁後，大阪和神戶附近的主要機場被迫關閉。 這個夏天還帶來了廣島暴雨導致的洪水和全國極端炎熱。
Video cameras on Hokkaido showed cities going dark as the quake disabled power systems, leaving nearly 3 million households on the island without electricity.
北海道的攝像機顯示，隨著地震癱瘓了電力系統，城市變得黑暗，島上有近300萬戶家庭沒有電。
The island’s only nuclear power plant, which was offline, switched to a backup generator to keep its spent fuel cool and nuclear regulators said there was no sign of abnormal radiation – a concern after a massive quake and tsunami in March 2011 that hit north-east Japan destroyed both external and backup power to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, causing meltdowns.
島上唯一離線的核電站改用備用發電機以保持其乏燃料冷卻，核監管機構表示沒有異常輻射的跡象 - 2011年3月發生的大規模地震和海嘯襲擊了題本東北部後摧毀了福島第一核電站的外部和備用電源，造成了熔毀。
Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the quake’s epicentre was 40km (24 miles) deep. But it still wreaked havoc across much of the relatively sparsely inhabited island.
日本氣象廳（Japan’s Meteorological Agency）表示，地震震中位於40公裡（24英裡）深處。 但它仍然在相對人煙稀少的島嶼上造成嚴重破壞。
Rescuers were using small backhoes and shovels to sift through the tons of soil, rocks and timber in hopes of finding survivors in the town of Atsuma, where steep mountainsides collapsed, crushing homes and farm buildings and leaving scores of brown gashes in the deep green hills.
救援人員正在使用小型挖土機和鏟子挖出大量的土壤，巖石和木材，希望在厚真町（Atsuma）找到倖存者。那裡陡峭的山坡坍塌，破壞了房屋和農場建築，並在深綠色的山丘上留下幾十個褐色的切口。
Airports and many roads on the island were closed and trains were cancelled because of power outages. NHK showed workers rushing to clean up shattered glass and reinstall ceiling panels that had tumbled down in the region’s biggest airport at Chitose.
由於停電，島上的機場和許多道路都被關閉，火車被取消了。 NHK報導工人們急於清理破碎的玻璃並重新安裝這個千歲（Chitose）最大機場中倒下的天花板。
The prime minister, Shinzō Abe, said that up to 25,000 troops and other personnel would be dispatched to Hokkaido to help with rescue operations.
日本首相安倍晉三表示，將派遣多達25,000名士兵和其他人員前往北海道幫助救援行動。