It’s a classic case of American news outlets making disproportionate news out of almost everything that comes out of Japan. On one hand, CNN headlines the story about an earthquake that registered a massive 7.0 on the Moment Magnitude Scale, while the eastern coast of Hokkaido Japan only sees a few sets of four-inch waves ripple on the shoreline. Japanese news outlets the entire day have been stifling a collective yawn, instead opting to front-page continuing coverage on the NPD elections and the announcement of a wide-scale pullout of Japanese troops from Iraq.

However, should you manage to look past the fact that a 7.0 magnitude earthquake is two tenths of a point greater than the earthquake that killed 6,500 people in and around Kobe in 1995, you’ll notice that today’s quake still struck at a depth of over 12 miles, 80 miles off the shore of Japan’s northernmost island.

Common practice for Asian news–especially Japan’s, is for it to get heavily sensationalized during its dizzying spin through the Western news juicer. It’s a perpetual cycle of feeding the stereotypes that Americans have come to expect regarding Japan, where the technology is “space-age,” the culture is “exotic,” the earthquakes are “epic,” and the population is “burgeoning.” Duly noted. However, only that last bit is not entirely open for debate.

Newsflash, Japan has had large-scale earthquakes that wreaked unforgettable destruction in the past, but let’s not forget about all those little tremors felt by the country every day of the week. In a CNN world, 7.0 would be huge news, had it disturbed dog-walkers out on the beach for their morning stroll, but it didn’t, so let’s not break out the flashlights and Calorie Mates just yet.