Twenty four citizens are missing after a powerful quake struck Christchurch, and many of whom are believed to be trapped under rubble.
They include 11 students from Toyama College of Foreign Languages in Toyama City, who were believed to be trapped under the collapsed building of the King's Education College language school.
Three Japanese from the cities of Morioka, Kyoto and Kobe, who studied at the same language school, were also missing, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.
Ten students who visited New Zealand on a tour could not be contacted, a Tokyo company organising studies abroad told AFP.
Several members of the Toyama group were in the fourth-floor cafeteria of the King's College building when the 6.3-magnitude quake struck at lunch time, reducing the building to rubble.
The school was first alerted to the disaster when a female teacher contacted her family in Japan by text message, saying she was trapped inside the building with seven students.
Japan's government was to dispatch an emergency quake rescue team of some 70 rescuers and police officers.
New Zealand declared a national state of emergency Wednesday after the quake left nearly 400 people dead or missing.
Like New Zealand, Japan sits on the "Pacific Ring of Fire" zone of seismic activity and is also often hit by powerful earthquakes.
