Overview
- A powerful offshore earthquake, which struck Monday at 4:53 p.m. local time off Iwate, was measured by Japan’s weather agency between magnitude 7.4 and 7.7 at a depth of about 10 kilometers.
- Tsunami waves observed so far have been modest, including 0.8 meters at Kuji and 0.4 meters at Miyako, and the broad tsunami warning was later downgraded to an advisory.
- Authorities ordered coastal evacuations and halted high-speed Shinkansen and local rail services in the Tohoku region, with roughly 172,000 people told to move to higher ground.
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi set up an emergency task force as officials reported no major injuries so far, about 200 power outages, and no abnormalities at the Fukushima, Onagawa, or Higashidori nuclear plants.
- The Japan Meteorological Agency cautioned that strong aftershocks could strike for about a week, reflecting Japan’s constant quake risk on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its rapid tsunami readiness shaped by the 2011 disaster.