Tokyo, April 24: An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale has jolted eastern Japan, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
The powerful quake struck off the east coast of Honshu island at 19:12 local time (1012 GMT) on Saturday, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The epicenter was monitored at 39.1642 degrees north latitude and 142.8916 degrees east longitude, with a depth of 38.9 kilometers (23 miles).
No tsunami warning was issued following the tremor. However, buildings swayed in Tokyo and subway service was suspended for a while.
On March 11, Japan was hit by a magnitude 9 earthquake, followed by a devastating tsunami that ravaged the country’s northeastern coast.
The tremor triggered a nuclear crisis by knocking out power to cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the northeast coast.
Japan has not been able to bring the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima plant under control since water filling the reactor buildings is hampering restoration work.
Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced last week that it would be able to reduce radiation leaks from its Fukushima plant within three months and to also cool reactors and control the radiation within six to nine months.
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has raised the severity level of the situation at Fukushima from 5 to 7 — the worst on an international scale.
According to the agency, the level of radiation emissions at the Fukushima plant was equivalent to 10 percent of the level in the Chernobyl accident of 1986.
The explosion and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant resulted in the release of radioactivity into the environment and claimed the lives of over 4,000 people.
The number of dead and missing from Japan’s March 11 quake and tsunami now stands at over 28,000, according to the National Police Agency.
——–Agencies