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TOKYO: A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck the eastern coast of Japan on Saturday (February 13), shaking buildings and causing widespread blackouts, but there appeared to be no major damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters that no major casualties were reported, according to the Kyodo news agency, which reported that more than 50 people had been injured but gave no further details.
There were no immediate reports of significant damage, although local news broadcast images of a landslide on a highway.
The epicenter of the earthquake was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60 kilometers, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It struck at 11:08 p.m. local time (10:08 p.m. Singapore time) and shook buildings in the capital Tokyo and elsewhere.
No tsunami warning had been issued, the weather agency said.
Some 950,000 families were initially without power, government spokesman Katsunobu Kato said in a briefing by public broadcaster NHK. The blackouts appeared to be concentrated in northeast Japan, including Fukushima and neighboring prefectures.
Suga, who was called to his office by the earthquake, told reporters that his cabinet will meet at 9:00 am Sunday for a briefing, Kyodo said.
Broadcaster NHK added that the government would establish a special liaison office to coordinate with affected regions.
READ: Japan to release polluted water from Fukushima into the sea: reports
A Reuters cameraman in Fukushima said his hotel room on the 10th floor shook heavily for some time. A man at the hotel was taken to the hospital after falling and hitting his head on a door, the Reuters cameraman said.
Although injured, the man was still able to walk, the cameraman said.
Television footage also showed broken glass on shop fronts, while Kyodo news reported a dozen injuries, though none appeared to be immediately serious.
Images posted online showed broken glass in a store and items dropped from supermarket shelves.
Tomoko Kobayashi, who works at a traditional inn in the Minamisoma city of Fukushima, told Kyodo that “the initial shock felt more powerful than the one I experienced in the Great East Japan Earthquake” of 2011.
Renowned author Yu Miri, who also lives in Minamisoma, tweeted a photo of her home, showing books, potted plants and other belongings strewn across the floor.
“My house in Odaka, the city of Minamisoma, is a mess,” he wrote.
“I hear the noise of the ground. And another shaking,” he tweeted about a reply.
There were no irregularities at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants, or the Kahiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, said the owner of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings.
The utility company also said there were no changes in radiation levels around its plants.
Kato said there were no irregularities at the Fukushima Daini and Onagawa nuclear facilities.
The earthquake occurred in Fukushima just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, which devastated northeast Japan and triggered a massive tsunami that led to the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century, one centered on the Daiichi Facility.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the most seismically active areas in the world. Japan accounts for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
The country has strict building regulations aimed at ensuring that buildings can withstand strong earthquakes.
In September 2018, a powerful 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck Hokkaido, triggering landslides, collapsing houses and killing more than 40.
