The death toll has climbed to 34 from a powerful earthquake in southwestern Japan, according to the Kumamoto prefectural governmentA person walks past the houses collapsed in an earthquake in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, southern Japan, Friday, July 31, 2026. (Koji Harada/Kyodo News via AP)A person walks past the houses collapsed in an earthquake in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, southern Japan, Friday, July 31, 2026. (Koji Harada/Kyodo News via AP)A person walks past the houses collapsed in an earthquake in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, southern Japan, Friday, July 31, 2026. (Koji Harada/Kyodo News via AP)A person walks past the houses collapsed in an earthquake in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture, southern Japan, Friday, July 31, 2026. Smaller-scale searches continued Friday at the sites of collapsed houses in badly hit towns in southern Kumamoto.