Tsunami advisory issued for northern Japan's Pacific coast after 6.7-magnitude earthquake

TOKYO — Japan's weather agency issued a tsunami advisory for northern Japan's Pacific coast after a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck off Aomori Prefecture on Friday.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the temblor occurred at 11:44 a.m. local time off Aomori's Pacific coast at a depth of 20 km, measuring 4 on Japan's seismic scale of 7 in the hardest-hit areas.

The JMA, which revised the magnitude of the quake up from 6.5, issued the tsunami advisory for the coastal areas of Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures along the Pacific coast, with waves up to 1 metre expected.

The quake's epicentre was at a latitude of 40.9 degrees north and a longitude of 143.0 degrees east.

On late Monday night, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck the same region, measuring upper 6 on Japan's seismic scale of 7 in parts of Aomori, prompting the JMA to issue tsunami warnings for Iwate Prefecture and parts of Hokkaido and Aomori prefectures, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Friday there were no immediate signs of abnormalities at the region’s nuclear facilities.

Following Monday’s tremor, the JMA had published a rare special advisory warning that another quake of similar or greater size was possible for another week.

The advisory covered the Sanriku area on the northeastern tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu and the northern island of Hokkaido, facing the Pacific.

The region is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.

In August 2024, the JMA issued its first special advisory, for the southern half of Japan’s Pacific coast warning of a possible “megaquake” along the Nankai Trough.

Japan sits on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is one of the world’s most seismically active countries.