Powerful Quake Hits Northeastern Japan; 30 Injured

Tokyo, Dec. 9 (Jiji Press)–A powerful earthquake mainly struck Japan’s Tohoku northeastern region, including Aomori Prefecture, on Monday night, measuring up to upper 6, the second-highest level on the country’s seismic intensity scale. The temblor occurred at a depth of 54 kilometers off the east coast of Aomori around 11:15 p.m., with upper 6 registered in the city of Hachinohe in the prefecture and lower 6, the third-highest level, in the Aomori towns of Oirase and Hashikami. It had an estimated magnitude of 7.5 on the Japan Meteorological Agency scale and 7.4 on the more accurate moment magnitude scale. The JMA issued tsunami warnings to the Pacific coastal area of Aomori and the central part of the Pacific coastal area of the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido as well as Iwate Prefecture, an Aomori neighbor. The warning was downgraded to an advisory at 2:45 a.m. Tuesday. A tsunami of 70 centimeters was observed in the Iwate city of Kuji, a 50-centimeter-high tsunami in the Hokkaido town of Urakawa and 40-centimeter tsunamis in Hachinohe and the Aomori village of Rokkasho, according to the agency. Tsunami advisories were also issued to the eastern and western parts of the Pacific coastal area of Hokkaido, the Sea of Japan coastal area of Aomori, and Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures in Tohoku. All advisories were fully lifted at 6:20 a.m. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters Tuesday morning that 30 people have been injured following the temblor. Monday’s quake occurred at the boundary between land-side and sea-side tectonic plates, similar to the 2011 major earthquake that registered a moment magnitude of 9.0. The JMA issued at 2 a.m. Tuesday a warning on the possibility of powerful earthquakes continuing off Hokkaido or the Sanriku Pacific coastal area of Tohoku, which was declared for the first time since being introduced in December 2022. The agency and the Cabinet Office will call on people of 182 municipalities in the Pacific areas of Hokkaido to Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, to prepare to flee in the event of major tremors and tsunamis for about a week. The warning is similar to emergency information on a possible megaquake in the Nankai Trough off the country’s southern Pacific coast, issued in August 2024. The government said there is no need for prior evacuations, suspensions of public transportation services or school closures. According to the Aomori prefectural government, one person was injured as a national route near a train station in the town of Tohoku in the prefecture collapsed due to the Monday night quake, while a 65-year-old man suffered a burn after a fire broke out in the Kobata district of the city of Aomori. Meanwhile, a woman in her 70s fell at a parking space of an evacuation center in the Hokkaido town of Hidaka, breaking her arm. Electricity supply was temporarily lost at a total of about 4,200 households in Aomori and Iwate, said a unit of Tohoku Electric Power Co. Meanwhile, no abnormalities were found after the earthquake at Tohoku Electric’s Higashidori nuclear power station in the Aomori village of Higashidori, its Onagawa nuclear plant, which straddles the city of Ishinomaki and the town of Onagawa in Miyagi, and Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s Tomari nuclear plant in the Hokkaido village of Tomari, according to the secretariat of the Nuclear Regulation Authority. Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. reported that over 100 liters of water overflowed from a storage pool at a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, but said this did not have an impact on the environment. East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, suspended outbound services of its Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train line’s section between Shin-Aomori Station in Aomori and Fukushima Station in Fukushima, halting three trains. It suspended both inbound and outbound services between Shin-Aomori Station and Morioka Station in Iwate from the first train Tuesday, with the services expected to be resumed around 3 p.m. the same day. Takaichi has instructed her government staff to quickly figure out the extent of possible damage from the earthquake, provide accurate information to the public and rescue people affected by the earthquake. The government set up a response office at the crisis management center of the prime minister’s office in Tokyo. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]