On Wednesday night, March 16, 2022, a violent 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the shore of Fukushima in northern Japan, destroying furniture, cutting out power, and killing four people. Although a modest tsunami hit the coast, the low-risk warning was cancelled by Thursday morning.
The area is located in Northern Japan, which was ravaged by a terrible 9.0 earthquake and tsunami 11 years ago, which resulted in nuclear plant meltdowns and the release of huge amounts of radiation, rendering certain areas uninhabitable.
Four individuals died in the quake, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a parliamentary session on Thursday morning, and the cause of their deaths is being probed, while 97 others were injured. According to Kyodo News, a guy in his 60s died after falling from the second floor of his house while attempting to leave, while a man in his 70s panicked and suffered a heart attack.
The Japan Meteorological Agency withdrew its low-risk tsunami warning for the beaches of Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures early Thursday. In Ishinomaki, some 390 kilometres (242 miles) northeast of Tokyo, tsunami waves measuring 30 centimetres (11 inches) reached the coast.
The quake's magnitude was increased to 7.4 from 7.3, and its depth was increased from 60 kilometres (36 miles) to 56 kilometres (35 miles).
Broken walls of a department store building tumbled to the ground, and shards of windows were strewn over the roadway near the main train station in Fukushima city, the inland prefectural headquarters. Roads were fractured, and water gushed from subterranean pipes.
Furniture and appliances were also shattered to the floor in Fukushima apartments. Cosmetics and other items from convenience stores toppled from shelves and were strewn over the floor. An electric pole nearly fell in Yokohama, near Tokyo.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, which manages the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, claimed technicians detected no irregularities at the site, which is being dismantled, after 2011 tragedy when the cooling systems failed.
A fire alarm went off at the turbine building of the No. 5 reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, according to Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, although there was no real fire. Water pumps for the spent fuel cooling pool at two of Fukushima Daini's four reactors briefly stopped working, but were eventually restarted. The Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, which survived the tsunami of 2011, is also scheduled for decommissioning.
According to the Tohoku Electric Power Co., which serves the region, more than 2.2 million homes were temporarily without electricity in 14 prefectures, including the Tokyo area, but power was restored in most places by the morning, with the exception of about 37,000 homes in the hardest hit Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures.
The earthquake struck eastern Japan, including Tokyo, causing buildings to wobble severely.
Most of East Japan Railway Co.'s train services have been halted for safety checks, according to the company. Later, some local trains resumed service.
Long lineups formed outside key stations as commuters waited for trains to resume service late Wednesday, but trains in Tokyo resumed normal service Thursday morning.
The tremor caused a Tohoku Shinkansen express train to partially derail between Fukushima and Miyagi, but no one was wounded, said to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
He told reporters that the administration was examining the magnitude of the damage and that it will do all possible to help with rescue and relief efforts.
"Please take immediate action to save your life," Kishida wrote on Twitter.
Authorities were scrambling to assess damage, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno. "We're doing everything we can in terms of rescue operations and prioritising people's lives," he said.
For the next week, he advised inhabitants in the impacted areas to exercise particular vigilance due to the possibility of strong aftershocks