7.3 Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Japan

A massive earthquake of magnitude 7.3 rocked east Japan on Wednesday evening, rattling the capital city of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency informed.

The quake was centred off the coast of the Fukushima region at a depth of 60 kilometres and shortly after it hit at 11:36 pm (1436 GMT) an advisory for tsunami waves of one metre was issued for parts of the coast.

As per reports, no damage or injuries were recorded, but than two million households were left without power, including 700,000 in Tokyo, electricity provider TEPCO said.

In a tweet, TEPCO also said that it was checking operations at the Fukushima nuclear plant that went into meltdown 11 years ago after a huge 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit off the eastern coast on March 11, 2011.

It may be mentioned that Japan sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

The country is prone to earthquakes, for which, strict construction regulations are enforced to ensure buildings can withstand strong tremors.

The haunted memory of the 2011 undersea quake in northeastern Japan remains intact, the quake that triggered a deadly tsunami and unleashed the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Around 18,500 were killed or went missing in the tsunami.

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