An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 jolted northeastern and eastern Japan on Thursday morning, the region hit by a more powerful quake two days ago, the Meteorological Agency said. No tsunami warning was issued.
No abnormalities were observed at two nuclear power plants near the epicenter off the northeastern Japan coast — the crippled Fukushima No. 1 and idled Fukushima No. 2 — after the 6:23 a.m. quake, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. said.
The quake measured 4 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale to 7 in Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures and 3 in Miyagi, Yamagata, Tochigi, Saitama and Chiba prefectures, the agency said.
The temblor was felt in a wide area of Japan, including Tokyo, Aomori and Shizuoka. There could be a slight change in the sea surface level but it poses no danger, the agency said.
The focus of the quake was quite shallow under the seabed in the Pacific Ocean off Fukushima, it added.
Fukushima and nearby areas were hit by a magnitude-7.4 quake on Tuesday morning, triggering up to 1.4-meter tsunami and prompting over 10,000 people to evacuate, reviving memories of the disaster five years ago when a magnitude-9.0 quake and ensuing massive tsunami devastated the region in March 2011.
According to Tohoku Electric Power Co., no abnormalities were found at the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station in Miyagi Prefecture.