Inhabitants of northern Japan said on Friday that thorough preparations and lessons learned from the outbursts of other earthquakes reduced the destructions generated by the most recent major tremor to affect the region, according to AFP.

Because the country is so predisposed to earthquakes, residents are constantly organizing for the much-feared “Big One” and authorities have developed an infrastructure intended to hold up severe tremors, which in most parts of the world would cause a large number of fatalities.

Thursday’s 6.8-magnitude quake blew windows apart, produced landslides and fissured buildings, but fortunately claimed no deaths.

National authorities announced that a total of 158 people suffered injuries in the latest earthquake, out of which 35 were seriously wounded. However, there were no registered reports of deaths or missing people.

14 years ago, Hachinohe was struck by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake that killed two people and caused damages to 680 others in the city alone. That tremor, which destroyed the coastal city in the Pacific, was ensued by an aftershock of magnitude 6.9, which entirely crushed over 90 buildings. Nonetheless, Hachinohe’s disaster prevention office announced that no buildings were flattened or even half ruined in Thursday’s incident.

Japan, which is positioned at the crossing of four tectonic plates, undergoes 20 percent of the world’s violent earthquakes. Therefore, authorities offer regular instructions in order to prepare disaster evacuations on September 1, the anniversary of a 1923 earthquake that knocked down the Tokyo area, claiming approximately 143,000 deaths.

Last month, a 7.2-magnitude quake hit elsewhere in northern Honshu, and 23 people were reported dead or missing. Thus, inhabitants of this region said they were familiarized with earthquakes, as reported by AFP.