Among the dead was a man in his 60s who lived in the city of Soma, the local disaster prevention office said Thursday.
A tsunami warning was issued after Wednesday’s earthquake for the coastal prefectures of Fukushima and Miyagi, but it was lifted Thursday morning and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida later said that “no anomaly” was detected at any of the country’s nuclear plants.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake’s epicenter was 60 km deep. It warned of tsunami heights of up to one meter above normal tidal levels, with the initial waves arriving ashore at midnight local time (11 a.m. ET).
About an hour and a half after the earthquake, an 8-inch tsunami occurred along the coast of Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture, according to the agency, which urged people in affected areas to stay away from the coast.
Kishida told a news conference that a bullet train derailed near Fukushima as a result of the quake, but no injuries were reported. According to public broadcaster NHK, 78 people were trapped for four hours after the high-speed train derailed, but escaped through the emergency exit without injuries.
Kyodo News Agency reported that the quake-hit people were taken to a hospital in the city of Soma in Fukushima, without specifying the number of injured. Power has been restored to all parts of Tokyo, Tokyo Electric Power said.
On Thursday, the Meteorological Agency urged the public to be aware of more seismic activity in the next few days. Masaaki Nakamura, an official with the agency, urged people in the affected areas to stay away from the coast and not enter the sea until tsunami warnings are lifted. He also urged people to be vigilant about the dangers of mudslides.
Wednesday’s quake was centered 55 miles (89 kilometers) from the devastating 2011 earthquake that triggered a tsunami with 30-foot waves that destroyed several nuclear reactors in the area — leading to the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl accident. More than 22,000 They were either killed or missing in that disaster. The deaths were caused by the initial earthquake, tsunami, and post-disaster health conditions due to radiation leakage.
The 2011 Japan earthquake had a magnitude of 9.1, about 63 times stronger, and released about 500 times more energy than Wednesday’s earthquake.