A powerful earthquake struck off the northern coast of Japan on Monday, prompting a tsunami alert and emergency response, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). The quake, initially measured at magnitude 7.2 and later revised to 7.6, hit off the coasts of Hokkaido and Aomori at a depth of about 53 kilometers. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded the earthquake at 14:15 UTC, with the epicenter located roughly 73 kilometers east-northeast of Misawa, reports BSS.
Following the tremor, tsunami waves of up to 40 centimeters were reported along the northern coastline, including Urakawa in Hokkaido and the port of Mutsu Ogawara in Aomori. Earlier, authorities had warned of possible waves as high as 3 meters along the region’s Pacific-facing shores.
Safety checks were underway at nearby nuclear facilities, public broadcaster NHK said, while East Japan Railway suspended train services in several affected areas as a precaution. Local media also reported injuries at a hotel in the Aomori town of Hachinohe.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government has activated an emergency task force to assess the damage and coordinate disaster response. “We are putting people’s lives first and doing everything we can,” she told reporters.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cautioned that hazardous waves could be possible within 1,000 kilometers of the epicenter, including along portions of the Japanese and Russian coastlines.
Japan sits on the seismically active Ring of Fire and experiences about 20% of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater. The latest jolt comes just months after a magnitude-5.5 quake struck near the Tokara Islands in southwestern Japan, and weeks after Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula was rocked by an 8.8-magnitude quake that triggered regional tsunami fears.
Japan remains deeply shaped by seismic memories of the catastrophic 2011 megathrust earthquake and tsunami, which claimed thousands of lives and caused widespread devastation.
