The Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale is a seismic scale used in Japan and Taiwan to measure the intensity of earthquakes. It is measured in units of . Unlike the Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS) (a more accurate scale than the outdated Richter Scale), which measures the energy released by the earthquake, the JMA scale describes the degree of shaking at a point on the Earth's surface, and is analogous to the Mercalli intensity scale. The intensity of an earthquake is not totally determined by its magnitude, and varies from place to place; for example, a quake may be described as "shindo 4 in Tokyo, shindo 3 in Yokohama, shindo 2 in Shizuoka".