After a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit northeastern Japan on Wednesday night, authorities lifted a tsunami advisory and electricity was restored.
At least one person died in the coastal city of Soma and dozens more were injured in the earthquake, as authorities said emergency departments in affected areas received numerous calls to respond to emergencies.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said waves of less than a foot had been measured in the city of I, hours after the advisory had been issued.
The JMA initially reported a magnitude of 7.3, but later revised it to a magnitude of 7.3, which caused temporary power cuts to more than two million households.
It came just days after Japan marked the 11th anniversary of a massive earthquake that triggered a deadly wave and a nuclear catastrophe.
Video footage on social media showed a train in Tokyo rocking violently and rattling gaming machines at an arcade, while images showed usually bright cityscapes plunged into darkness.
As officials warned of potentially powerful aftershocks, authorities said they were working to assess the damage.
(JMA)
Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters that calls have been inundating police and ambulances.
Stay away from collapsed buildings and other high-risk places after a big earthquake.
The nuclear authority in Japan said there was no abnormality at the plant that went into meltdown.
The country's nuclear watchdog said that pumps for cooling pools storing spent fuel at the two plants in Miyagi were temporarily stopped but were being quickly restored.
There was some structural damage in the northeast, including the collapse of a stone wall of Aoba castle.
There were no immediate reports of injuries when the Shinkansen bullet train derailed.
An official in the emergency department of the local government of Ishinomaki told Agence France-Presse that he had been woken by violent shaking.
I heard the ground shake. He said that he immediately remembered the Great East Japan Earthquake, which happened in 2011.
The region was hit by several smaller earthquakes in the hours after the big one.
宮城県と福島県で震度6強https://t.co/CO3JmvpVcx#nhk_video pic.twitter.com/JqHSHpWg7C
— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) March 16, 2022
More than two million households were left without power in the eastern Kanto region.
The power company had restored power to its service area by 4:00 am, according to Kyodo.
Tohoku Electric Power said that 156,000 households lost power in the northeast.
NHK reported that Rifu town in Miyagi opened shelters after being ordered to evacuate.
The Prime Minister told reporters that the government was gathering information.
He said to stay away from the coast and to pay attention to the information on the earthquake.
震度5強を観測した宮城県白石市で16日午後11時半ごろに撮影された映像です。棚などが大きく左右に揺れおよそ10秒後には停電して真っ暗になっています。
撮影した男性は「恐怖を感じました。地震から2時間半がたってもまだ停電が続いています」と話していました。https://t.co/Bpb0eeqlQB#nhk_video pic.twitter.com/jhyk3tLgRk
— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) March 16, 2022
Japan sits on the Ring of Fire, which is a series of earthquakes that stretch through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.
The country is prone to earthquakes and has strict construction regulations intended to make buildings resistant to strong tremors, but it is still haunted by the 2011 catastrophe.
A minute's silence was held last Friday to remember the victims of the disaster.
Five former residents of Futaba returned to live there on a trial basis this year, after extensive decontamination around the stricken plant.
In the past, 12 percent of the prefecture was declared unsafe, but no-go zones now cover just 2.4 percent of the prefecture.
Agence France-Presse
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