A 6.1 magnitude earthquake shook the Tokyo area on Thursday evening.
The power went out in hundreds of households and train traffic was initially suspended.
Tokyo - A 6.1 magnitude earthquake shook the greater Tokyo area on Thursday evening at 10:41 p.m. local time (3:41 p.m. German time).
Initially, neither damage nor injuries were reported, nor was a tsunami warning issued.
That emerges from a report by the AFP press agency on Thursday.
Earthquakes are relatively common in Japan, and buildings are designed accordingly.
But the Fukushima disaster remains in the back of many minds.
Earthquake in Greater Tokyo: Nuclear Power Plants Checked
The Japanese meteorological authority has located the center of the quake at a depth of 80 kilometers in Chiba Prefecture, which is east of Tokyo. The colleagues from the USGS earthquake monitoring station in the USA said the depth was 61 kilometers and estimated the quake to be a little weaker at 5.9. In hundreds of households in the greater Tokyo area, the power went out and the train service was also shut down as a precaution. Experts checked the region's nuclear power plants; according to initial reports, no anomalies were known.
Fumio Kishida was elected Prime Minister of Japan just a few days ago, on October 4th, by the parliament.
After the quake, the new head of state called on people on Twitter to “take measures to protect your life” and to keep an eye on the latest information from the authorities.
The people in the affected region received a warning message on their cell phones beforehand.
Memory of the Fukushima disaster is present in the people
The magnitude of 6 on the Richter scale is considered strong, but the earthquake on Thursday is not comparable to the Tōhoku earthquake in 2011. This shook the earth with a magnitude of 9.1 and triggered a 14 meter high tsunami wave from which around 18,500 people lost their lives. Many residents are still living uprooted today because the radiation has prevented them from returning to their residential areas. Many people are missing. The Fukushima nuclear power plant was damaged as a result of the earthquake, which triggered a reactor disaster. It was the worst since the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The buildings of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima were designed for quakes up to a strength of 8.0 and tsunami waves up to 5.7 meters.
After the disaster, all nuclear power plants in the country were initially taken off the grid, but some were restarted.
The country wants to be climate neutral by 2050, but will continue to stick to nuclear energy.
However, the majority of people in Japan are against nuclear energy.
Many Japanese are still haunted by the memory of the severe earthquake ten years ago
(afp / bme).
