Abstract: Time series of coordinates of a large number of GPS stations in the world, processed by Prof. Geoffrey with GIPSY software are available at http://geodesy.unr.edu. Based on the time series of coordinates in the global reference frame of IGS08 at more than 250 stations of continuous GPS observations, downloaded from the website, the co-seismic displacements of the M7.3 Kyushu earthquake on April 16th, 2016 in Japan and the pre-seismic strain accumulations and displacements in the regional reference frame were obtained. The station of continuous GPS observation at BJFS near Beijing has been quite stable in displacement in the eastern part of China for more than 17 years since the beginning of its operation, and this station is used as the core station in the regional reference frame for the pre-seismic displacements of the Kyushu earthquake of M7.3. The main feature of the pre-seismic displacements of the Kyushu earthquake is characterized by the lock in the crust at and near the epicenter. The anomalous pre-seismic strain accumulation developed in an area of anomalous accumulation of the shear strain component of γ₁ on the northeast side of the epicenter, with increasing size of the area and increasing magnitude in γ₁. The largest area covered by the anomalous γ₁ is about 2000 km². The change in E component at BJFS since Nov. 26th, 2015 was caused by the replacement of the receiver and the antenna at the station. In order to study the short term change in displacements at stations at and near the epicenter, time series at three stations of continuous GPS observations, two at SUWN and DAEJ in south Korea and one at BJSH near Beijing were analyzed and the analysis shows that the displacements at the 3 stations have been quite stable in the same manner in east Asia. So BJSH is used as the core station in the regional reference frame of displacements and the displacement time series show that there were no significant short term anomalies before the earthquake.

Key words: GPS, GNSS, Co-seismic displacement, The 2016 Kyushu M7.3 earthquake in Japan, Earthquake precursor, Earthquake prediction