A 7.0 magnitude underwater earthquake hit off northeastern Japan on Saturday shortly after 11 p.m. local time (2 p.m. GMT), and was felt strongly and at length in Tokyo as well, but no tsunami warning was issued .
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the earthquake occurred at a depth of 60 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean off the Fukushima area, ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 that caused 18,000 dead and missing and caused a nuclear disaster.
There were no casualties or property damage reported immediately, apart from power cuts to several hundred thousand homes in the northeast of the country, according to local media.
Tepco, the operator of the severely damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, said in a tweet that it was monitoring the impact of the earthquake on its facilities.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga visited his offices, and the government was putting in place a special mechanism to monitor developments with the affected departments, according to the public broadcaster NHK.