Strong earthquake hits southeastern Japan

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 has occured in southeastern Japan, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damages and no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake struck on Sunday near the country’s eastern Izu islands in the Pacific Ocean, about 600km south of Tokyo, with its epicentre was about 370km below the sea, the Meteorological Agency said.

Some trains around the country were suspended temporarily for safety checks but later resumed.

No abnormalities were reported at power plants in the region, including the crippled nuclear power plant hit by the March earthquake and tsunami, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world’s most seismically active areas.

The country accounts for about 20 per cent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.

On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami, which triggered the world’s worst nuclear crisis in the 25 years since Chernobyl.

The disaster left up to 23,000 dead or missing.