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Japanese authorities lifted tsunami warnings on Tuesday, hours after a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake shook north-eastern regions, injuring at least 30 people and forcing about 90,000 residents to evacuate their homes.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) initially said a tsunami as high as three metres could hit Japan’s north-eastern coast after the earthquake struck off the coast at 11:15pm local time (1.15am AEDT).
Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and tsunamis from 20 to 70cm high were observed at several ports, JMA said.
In the early hours of Tuesday, the JMA downgraded the warnings to advisories, then lifted them.
The earthquake’s epicenter was located 80 kilometers off the Aomori prefecture coast at a depth of 54 kilometers, according to the agency.
On Japan’s 1-7 scale of seismic intensity, the tremor registered as an “upper 6” in Hachinohe city, Aomori prefecture — a quake strong enough to make it impossible to keep standing or move without crawling.
About three hours after the quake, there was little information on major damage or casualties from public broadcaster NHK. It cited a hotel employee in Hachinohe as saying several people were injured and taken to hospital, but that all were conscious.
Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told reporters early on Tuesday morning: “As of now, I am hearing that there have been seven injuries reported.”
In response, East Japan Railway halted certain train services in the region, which previously suffered from the devastating magnitude-9.0 earthquake in March 2011.
“There is a possibility that further powerful and stronger earthquakes could occur over the next several days,” a JMA official said at a briefing.
Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes. Located in the “Ring of Fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, Japan accounts for about 20 per cent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.
The north-eastern region suffered one of the country’s deadliest earthquakes on 11 March 2011, when a magnitude-9.0 tremor struck under the ocean off the coast of the northern city of Sendai.
It was the most powerful ever recorded in Japan and set off a series of massive tsunamis that devastated a wide swathe of the Pacific coastline and killed nearly 20,000 people.
