Japan issues tsunami warnings after 7.6 magnitude earthquake

Country's meteorological agency records several tsunami waves after major tremor on northern coast

A tsunami warning is issued on live television footage after a magnitude-7.6 earthquake in northern Japan. AFP

A major earthquake struck Japan's northern coast on Monday, with the country's meteorological agency recording several tsunami waves.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude-7.6 tremor struck at 2.15pm UTC off Misawa on Japan's Pacific coast, at a depth of 53 kilometres.

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning, with one wave hitting a port in Aomori, about 30 minutes later. Several more waves reached the coast, measuring up to 50 centimetres, the agency said.

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Public broadcaster NHK quoted a hotel employee in the city of Hachinohe in Aomori as saying there had been some injuries from the initial earthquake.

Live footage showed shattered glass fragments scattered across roads.

The shake map made available by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows the epicentre of the magnitude-7.6 earthquake. USGS / EPA

Residents in Hachinohe fled their homes to seek shelter in the city hall, NHK said.

The quake was also felt in Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido, where alarms rang on smartphones to alert residents. A reporter for NHK described a horizontal shaking of about 30 seconds, making it difficult to stand as the earthquake struck.

The meteorological agency earlier warned a tsunami of up to three metres was expected to hit Japan's Pacific coast.

Government spokesman Minoru Kihara urged residents to stay in a safe place until the warning had been lifted.

“Even after an initial wave, a second or third wave of an even greater height can arrive,” Mr Kihara told reporters.

'Megaquake'

Mr Kihara said he had “received no reports yet of abnormalities” from two nuclear power plants in northern Japan, adding that investigations are continuing in other nuclear sites.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, in brief comment to reporters, said the government set up an emergency task force to urgently assess the extent of damage. “We are putting people’s lives first and doing everything we can,” Ms Takaichi said.

Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi addresses the media in Tokyo after the earthquake. AFP

In 2011, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake caused a tsunami that left 18,500 people dead or missing and caused a devastating meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Shortly after Monday's quake, Tohoku Electric Power said in a post on X that the safety equipment at its Higashidori nuclear power plant in Aomori and its Onagawa nuclear plant in the Miyagi region had not shown any abnormalities.

Earthquakes are extremely hard to predict, but in January a government panel marginally increased the probability of a major jolt in the Nankai Trough off Japan in the next 30 years to 75-82 per cent.

The government then released a new estimate in March saying that such a “megaquake” and subsequent tsunami could cause as many as 298,000 deaths and damages of up to $2 trillion.