© USGS
An earthquake has struck the eastern coast of Japan, with early reports suggesting a magnitude 5.9 quake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
© USGS
The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) earlier
put the magnitude at 6.3 and reports the quake had a depth of 10km.
Reuters reports that no tsunami warning has been issued as a result of the quake.
The epicenter was
reported as Ibaraki Prefecture in central Japan, about 170 kilometers north of the capital Tokyo, and near the town of Daigo. The prefecture has a population of about three million people.
Japan's NHK news agency report that tremors were felt throughout "wide areas" of the east coast, although it is unclear how much damage has been caused.NHK
reports that the JMA will hold a press conference at 11:45pm local time to provide further information on disaster prevention and earthquake activity.
In 2011, the 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake caused large scale destruction of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which remains one of the biggest environmental disaster zones on the planet.
Comment: Earlier this month the same area was rocked by another severe, shallow magnitude 5.5 earthquake; and two earthquakes in two minutes, one of them strong.