Powerful Earthquake Strikes Japan

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A powerful earthquake has struck the eastern coast of Japan.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) put the quakes magnitude at 6.3 while the US Geological Survey reported the tremor to be 5.9.

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Prelim M5.9 earthquake near the east coast of Honshu, Japan Dec-28 12:38 UTC, updates https://t.co/JA7ssAKmrn

— USGS Big Quakes (@USGSBigQuakes) December 28, 2016

The quake struck at a shallow depth of 6.2 miles about 11 miles outside the town of Daigo, northeast of the capital Tokyo and struck just months after devastating tremors left 50 dead when two strong earthquakes hit southern Japan’s Kumamoto prefecture

Authorities say there have been no reported injuries and no tsunami warnings issued.

RT reports:

A statement released by the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reassured citizens that countermeasures are in place to deal with the fallout of the earthquake, and he encouraged people to report damage to the authorities.

Japan’s disaster management agency say it is working to assess any damage to buildings and personal property.

Japan’s NHK news agency report that tremors were felt throughout “wide areas” of the east coast, although it is unclear how much damage has been caused.

NHK reports that the JMA will hold a press conference at 11:45pm local time to provider further information on disaster prevention and earthquake activity.

In 2011, the 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake caused large scale destruction of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which remains one of the biggest environmental disaster zones on the planet.

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, which is currently decommissioning Fukushima’s destroyed reactors, has released a statement saying they are investigating the latest earthquake’s impact on its facilities.

“At the moment, we have not confirmed the impact of the earthquake on our main power facilities (including nuclear power plants),” the statement read.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority says there has been no abnormal activity at the Tokai nuclear power plant in the Ibaraki prefecture in the wake of the earthquake, according to local reports.