A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast on Monday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, with the epicentre in the Pacific Ocean at a depth of about 10 km. Authorities issued a tsunami warning and advised people to avoid coastal areas after predicting waves up to 3 metres (about 9.8 ft), with the largest impacts expected in Iwate, Aomori and Hokkaido prefectures.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government had set up an emergency task force and urged residents in affected areas to evacuate to safety. Broadcaster NHK showed ships leaving Hachinohe port in Hokkaido and ran on-screen warnings telling people to evacuate.
Transport was disrupted: bullet train services in Aomori at the northern tip of Honshu were halted following the tremors, Kyodo News reported. The quake registered an “upper 5” on Japan’s seismic intensity scale — strong enough to make it difficult for people to move and to cause unreinforced concrete-block walls to collapse in many cases.
Japan, located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” experiences frequent seismic activity and accounts for roughly 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or higher. There are no operating nuclear power plants currently in Hokkaido and Tohoku, though utilities in those regions have several units shut down. Tohoku Electric Power said it was checking the impact of the quake and tsunami on its Onagawa nuclear power plant.
