A magnitude 6 earthquake shook a large area of eastern Japan this Thursday, with its epicenter off the coast of Fukushima, without the tsunami alert being activated nor any damage resulting from it being recorded so far. The earthquake occurred at 12:16 local time today (3:26 GMT) and had its epicenter 40 kilometers deep off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, in the east of the country, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. (JMA).
The tremor reached level 4 on the Japanese seismic scale (7 levels and focused on measuring surface agitation and potential damage) and the same level in the neighboring prefectures of Iwate and Miyagi.
The operating company of the damaged Fukushima plant, TEPCO, said that it is reviewing whether any problems have occurred there after the earthquake, according to the state broadcaster NHK, while the JR East railway company suspended operations of the Fukushima bullet train. Tohoku, which connects Tokyo with Sendai through a power outage.
According to the Tohoku Electric Power company, no anomaly was detected at the Miyagi Ongawa nuclear power plant or in the radiation levels in the areas near it.
This Thursday's earthquake in Japan occurs after a strong earthquake hit Taiwan the day before, leaving nearly a dozen dead and hundreds injured and forcing the activation of a tsunami warning on the islands of the Okinwa archipelago, southwest of Japan.
Japan sits on the so-called Ring of Fire, one of the most active seismic zones in the world, and suffers earthquakes relatively frequently, so its infrastructure is specially designed to withstand tremors.
