Magnitude 7.6 Earthquake Hits Northern Japan

A strong 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan late Monday night, leaving 23 people hurt and sending small tsunamis toward communities along the Pacific coast.

After the quake, officials urged residents to stay alert, warning that more shaking could follow and that the chances of a larger earthquake had temporarily increased.

The tremor struck at about 11:15 p.m., roughly 50 miles off the coast of Aomori, the northernmost prefecture on Japan’s main island of Honshu. It hit just north of the Japanese coast the saw the magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in 2011 that killed nearly 20,000 people.

The shaking was powerful enough to trigger a tsunami measuring around 70 centimeters in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture.

Other coastal towns in the region also saw waves of up to 50 centimeters, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.

Nobuo Yamada, who runs a convenience store in Hachinohe, said he had never felt the ground move so intensely. He said he was thankful the electricity was still on in the area.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency reported that 23 people were injured overall, including one person with more serious wounds.

Most injuries were caused by falling items. Several people were hurt at a hotel in Hachinohe, and a man in Tohoku suffered minor injuries when his car dropped into a hole.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara encouraged people in affected areas to move to higher ground or head to designated shelters until tsunami advisories were lifted.

He said roughly 500 households lost power after the quake and noted that Shinkansen bullet trains, along with several local rail services, were temporarily halted in parts of the region.

Kihara added that nuclear facilities in the area were carrying out precautionary inspections. The Nuclear Regulation Authority reported that about 118 gallons of water leaked from a spent-fuel cooling system at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Aomori.

Officials said there was no safety risk because the water level stayed within the normal operating range.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said around 480 people were staying at the Hachinohe Air Base for shelter, and 18 defense helicopters had been deployed to survey the damage.

Meanwhile, about 200 travelers were stuck overnight at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido.

Satoshi Kato, a vice principal at a public high school in Hachinohe, told reporters he was at home when the shaking began. The force knocked bowls and glasses to the floor, shattering them into sharp pieces.

He then drove to the school, which serves as an evacuation site. Along the way, he passed several traffic accidents as residents tried to get out of the area.