Strong quake hits off Japan coast, triggering blackouts
14 February, 2021
A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 hit off the coastline of eastern Japan on Saturday (Feb 13), shaking structures and triggering widespread blackouts, but there were no major damage no tsunami warning was issued.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters that zero main casualties were reported, according to Kyodo news firm, which reported that a lot more than 50 people have been injured, but he gave no more details.
There were no immediate reports of significant damage, though local news broadcast images of a landslide on a highway.
The epicentre of the earthquake was off the coast of Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60km, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. It strike at 11.08pm local period (10.08pm, Singapore time) and shook buildings found in the administrative centre Tokyo and elsewhere.
No tsunami warning had been issued, the meteorological company said.
Some 950,000 households were at first without power, federal government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told a briefing carried on open public broadcaster NHK. The blackouts were concentrated in northeast Japan, incorporating Fukushima and neighbouring prefectures.
Suga, who was simply called to his business office more than the earthquake, told journalists his cabinet will match in 9:00 am Sunday for a briefing, Kyodo said.
Broadcaster NHK added that the government would place up a special liaison office to coordinate with affected regions.
A Reuters cameraman on site in Fukushima said his tenth ground accommodation shook heavily for quite a while. One man at the hotel was taken to hospital after falling and striking his head on a door, the Reuters cameraman said.
Although injured, the person was still able to walk, the cameraman said.
Footage from tv set also showed broken cup from shop fronts, even though Kyodo news reported about a dozen accidents, although none immediately were grave.
Photos posted online showed broken glass at a shop and products spilled off the shelves in a supermarket.
Tomoko Kobayashi, who works at a traditional inn found in Fukushima's Minamisoma metropolis told Kyodo that "the initial jolt felt stronger than the main one I experienced in the Great East Japan Earthquake" of 2011.
Distinguished author Yu Miri, who also lives on Minamisoma, tweeted a photography of her home, demonstrating books, potted plants and other belongings strewn over the floor.
"My home in Odaka, Minamisoma town is all messed up," she wrote.
"I hear the ground rumbling. And another quake," she tweeted about an aftershock.
There were no irregularities at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants, or at the Kahiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, owner Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said.
The utility also said there is no change in the radiation amounts around its plants.
Kato said there have been zero irregularities at the Fukushima Daini and Onagawa nuclear services.
The quake hit off of Fukushima just weeks before the 10-year anniversary of the Mar 11, 2011, quake that devastated northeast Japan and triggered a massive tsunami that led to the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 % of a hundred years - one centred at the Daiichi facility.
Earthquakes are normal in Japan, among the world's most seismically dynamic areas. Japan makes up about about 20 % of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
The united states has strict construction regulations designed to ensure buildings can withstand strong tremors.
In September 2018, a robust 6.6-magnitude quake rocked Hokkaido, triggering landslides, collapsing houses and killing more than 40.
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