A powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck off northern Japan late Monday, injuring 23 people and causing a tsunami to hit Pacific coast communities, officials said. Authorities warned of possible aftershocks and an increased risk of a larger quake.
The government was assessing damage after the quake, which occurred about 11:15 p.m. in the Pacific Ocean roughly 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of Aomori, the northernmost prefecture on Honshu island.
“I’ve never experienced such a big shaking,” convenience store owner Nobuo Yamada told public broadcaster NHK in Hachinohe, Aomori, adding that power lines were still functioning in his area.
A tsunami of up to 70 cm (2 feet, 4 inches) was recorded at Kuji port in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori, and levels as high as 50 cm struck other nearby coastal towns, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency reported 23 injuries, including one serious case. Most people were hurt by falling objects, NHK said, noting several injuries at a Hachinohe hotel and a man slightly hurt when his car fell into a hole in Tohoku.
The meteorological agency revised the quake’s magnitude to 7.5 from an earlier 7.6 and initially warned of tsunami surges up to 3 metres (10 feet) in some places before downgrading to an advisory.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara urged residents to move to higher ground or seek shelter until advisories were lifted. He said about 800 homes lost power and that the Shinkansen bullet trains and some local rail services were suspended in parts of the region.
Nuclear facilities in the area were conducting safety checks, Kihara said. The Nuclear Regulation Authority reported about 450 liters (118 gallons) of water spilled from a spent fuel cooling area at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Aomori, but said levels remained normal and there was no safety concern.
About 480 people sought shelter at Hachinohe Air Base, and 18 defense helicopters were deployed for damage assessments, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said.
Roughly 200 passengers were stranded overnight at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, NHK reported.
The meteorological agency cautioned about possible aftershocks in the coming days and said the risk of a magnitude-8-level quake and a potential tsunami had slightly increased along Japan’s northeastern coast from Chiba to Hokkaido. It urged residents in 182 municipalities to review emergency preparations for the coming week.
Satoshi Kato, vice principal of a public high school in Hachinohe, told NHK he was home when the quake hit and saw glassware and bowls shatter. He drove to the school, designated an evacuation center, and encountered traffic jams and accidents as people fled; no evacuees had arrived at the school yet, he said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government had set up an emergency task force to urgently assess damage. “We are putting people’s lives first and doing everything we can,” she said, later urging residents to follow information from local municipalities and be ready to evacuate if they feel tremors.
The quake struck about 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Hachinohe at a depth of about 50 km (30 miles) beneath the sea, the meteorological agency said.
The epicenter was near the area devastated by the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in 2011 that killed nearly 20,000 people and wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. “You need to prepare, assuming that a disaster like that could happen again,” Satoshi Harada of the meteorological agency’s earthquake and volcano division said.
At 6:20 a.m. Tuesday, authorities lifted all tsunami advisories for the Pacific coast in northern Japan, NHK said.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported another quake early Tuesday, magnitude 5.1, about 122 km (76 miles) south of Honcho at a depth of 35 km. No further details were immediately available.
