The Great Kantō earthquake (関東大震災 Kantō daishinsai) struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 am JST (2:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration of the earthquake was between 4 and 10 minutes.[2] This is the deadliest earthquake in Japanese history, and at the time was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the region. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake later surpassed that record, at magnitude 9.0.