Tsunami warnings lifted after M7.5 quake rocks northeastern Japan
Japan lifted all tsunami advisories on Tuesday morning, hours after a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck off eastern Aomori Prefecture at around 11:15 p.m. Monday, triggering warnings for coastal areas of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate prefectures.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) registered a seismic intensity of upper-6 on the Japanese shindo scale in the city of Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture. According to the JMA, the quake occurred at a depth of approximately 50 kilometers.
The tsunami warning for the area was downgraded to an advisory early Tuesday, after waves of up to 70 centimeters in height were detected in some areas, according to NHK.
Still, the agency urged people to be on alert for further quakes in the area.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said the government was gathering information on casualties and property damage. The government set up a crisis management office at the Prime Minister’s Office.
“Based on the instruction from the prime minister, we are mobilizing all resources for assessing the damage, conducting search-and-rescue operations and implementing emergency disaster relief measures under the policy of prioritizing human life,” the top government spokesperson said during a news conference.
There were also no reports significant damage to infrastructure, and no abnormalities had been reported at any of the nation's nuclear power plants.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a post to X that it had been informed by Tokyo that there were no abnormalities at Japan's nuclear facilities throughout the country, including the Fukushima No. 1 plant, following the quake.
It said earlier that the discharge of treated radioactive water at the Fukushima plant had been temporarily suspended as a precaution.
Several hundred homes in the Hokkaido and the Tohoku region were left without power due to the quake, according to Hokkaido Electric Power and Tohoku Electric Power, though the utilities said that power had been restored as of 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Earlier, NHK reported that two F-2 fighter jets based at the Air Self-Defense Force's Hyakuri Air Base in Ibaraki Prefecture, one SH-60 patrol helicopter based at the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Ominato Naval Base, in Aomori Prefecture, and two F-35 fighter jets based at the ASDF's Misawa Air Base, also in Aomori, were gathering information.
According to JR East, due to the effects of the earthquake, the Tohoku Shinkansen has suspended operations on both the inbound and outbound lines between Morioka Station and Shin-Aomori Station as of Tuesday morning. Other operations were partially suspended, and travelers were advised to visit the JR East website.
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