More than 94,000 people remained in evacuation centres, cut off from the world by destroyed roads, but television footage showed relief goods being unloaded from planes at the main airport and water services gradually being restored.

"These quakes have produced massive damage, and police, firemen and military personnel are making every effort to restore things," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference, warning of further aftershocks.

A 5.8-magnitude quake hit the area late on Monday. Of more than 600 quakes hitting Kyushu since Thursday, more than 87 have registered at least a four on Japan's intensity scale, strong enough to shake buildings.

The Kumamoto region is an important manufacturing hub and home to Japan's only operating nuclear station, which has been declared safe.

The benchmark Nikkei rose 3.7 percent to 16,869.29 in mid-morning trade, with major exporters rebounding sharply after tumbling on Monday, hit by a stronger yen and worries that the earthquakes could disrupt their supply chains.

A 9-magnitude quake and tsunami in northern Japan in March 2011 caused the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986, shutting down the nuclear industry for safety checks and sending radiation spewing across the countryside.

Nearly 20,000 people were killed in the 2011 tsunami.