TOKYO — A
powerful 7.3-magnitude quake jolted east Japan on Wednesday night, rattling the
capital Tokyo and prompting a tsunami advisory for parts of the northeast
coast, the
Japan Meteorological Agency said.
اضافة اعلان
The quake was centered off the coast of the
Fukushima region at a depth of 60km.
Shortly after it hit at 11:36pm (1436 GMT)
an advisory for tsunami waves of one meter was issued for parts of the coast.
There were no immediate reports of damage or
injuries, but at least two million households were left without power,
including 700,000 in Tokyo, electricity provider TEPCO said.
In the northeastern region, 156,000
households had no power, regional energy company
Tohoku Electric Power said.
Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida told reporters
the government was gathering information on the situation.
"We will commit ourselves to gathering
information, do our best to rescue those affected by the (quake) and
communicate information appropriately," he said.
TEPCO also said in a tweet that it was
checking operations at the Fukushima nuclear plant that went into meltdown 11
years ago after a huge 9.0-magnitude quake hit off the eastern coast on March
11, 2011, triggering a tsunami and nuclear disaster.
The nuclear regulation authority said there
were no abnormalities detected at Onagawa nuclear plant in northeastern Miyagi
prefecture.
Ring of Fire
Regional train company JR East said it was
experiencing significant disruption to its operations.
Japan sits on the Pacific "Ring of
Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches through Southeast
Asia and across the Pacific basin.
The country is regularly hit by quakes, and
has strict construction regulations intended to ensure buildings can withstand
strong tremors.
But it remains haunted by the memory of the
2011 undersea quake in northeastern Japan that triggered a deadly tsunami and
unleashed the Fukushima nuclear accident.
A minute's silence was held on Friday, the
anniversary of the disaster, to remember the some 18,500 people left dead or
missing in the
tsunami.
Around the stricken Fukushima plant, extensive
decontamination has been carried out, and this year five former residents of
Futaba, the region's last uninhabited town, returned to live there on a trial
basis.
Around 12 percent of
Fukushima was once
declared unsafe but no-go zones now cover just 2.4 percent of the prefecture,
although populations in many towns remain far lower than before.
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