Powerful quake hits northeastern Japan; 6 injured

Upper 6 was recorded in the Aomori town of Hashikami, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The neighboring city of Hachinohe in the prefecture logged lower 6, the third-highest level on the Japanese scale.

The temblor, with an estimated magnitude of 7.2, occurred around 7:30 am at a depth of 44 kilometers off Iwate Prefecture, south of Aomori, between the continental and oceanic plates, according to the agency.

No tsunamis occurred as a result of the earthquake.

According to the Aomori prefectural government, three people suffered injuries in Hachinohe and one each in Hashikami and the city of Aomori, the capital of the prefecture.

In the city of Kamaishi in Iwate, a woman in her 90s fell and hurt her right arm.

An advisory for a subsequent powerful earthquake off the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido or the Sanriku coastal area in northeastern Japan "will not be issued because the criteria for such an advisory have not been met," Ayataka Ebita, director of the Earthquake and Tsunami Observation Division at the meteorological agency, said at a press conference in Tokyo.

Still, he said, "Caution is necessary for the next week or so against earthquakes measuring up to around upper 6 in areas that experienced strong shaking in today's quake."

In areas off the Sanriku coast, seismic activity started to increase last November.

A subsequent powerful earthquake advisory had been issued for a week after a 7.5-magnitude quake measuring up to upper 6 off the eastern coast of Aomori Prefecture on December 8 and a 7.7-magnitude temblor measuring up to upper 5 off the Sanriku coast on April 20.

East Japan Railway Co., or JR East, suspended both northbound and southbound services of the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train line between Tokyo Station and Shin-Aomori Station in Aomori Prefecture due to the quake. Operations were restarted for all sections later.

Services resumed at 9:30 am for both directions between Tokyo and Sendai Station in Miyagi Prefecture, part of Tohoku and located south of Iwate, and shortly after 1:00 pm for both directions between Sendai and Morioka Station in Iwate and for northbound services between Morioka and Shin-Aomori.

Southbound services on the section between Morioka and Shin-Aomori resumed around 1:55 pm.

The number of trains has been substantially reduced on all sections.

No abnormalities have been confirmed at nuclear power stations or other nuclear facilities in Tohoku and Hokkaido, according to the secretariat of the Nuclear Regulation Authority.