Japanese authorities said on Wednesday (June 19) that at least 16 people were injured after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck north-western Japan on Tuesday night, prompting the government to issue a tsunami warning.
The Meteorological Agency lifted a tsunami warning early on Wednesday after 1m tsunami waves that it had predicted were not observed on the coasts of Ishikawa, Niigata and Yamagata prefectures.
The agency still warned of aftershocks and mudslides following the 10.22pm (9.22pm Singapore time) quake, whose seismic centre was off the coast of Yamagata prefecture at a depth of about 14km.
The agency revised the magnitude of the quake to 6.7 from an initial reading of 6.8.
The quake caused power failures, with about 9,000 households without power temporarily in the prefectures of Yamagata and Niigata, according to Tohoku Electric Power.
No abnormalities were found at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station in Niigata prefecture, the operator Tokyo Electric Power said. All of its seven reactors have been offline since the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant.
Earthquake-prone Japan sits at the convergence of four tectonic plates. The country is also home to more than 100 active volcanoes.
In 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake rocked north-eastern Japan and resulting tsunami devastated coastal areas, leaving about 18,500 people dead. The twin natural disasters also caused meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
