A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.1 on the Richter Scale struck the island of Kyushu in southern Japan on Thursday. The strong quake prompted the authorities to issue a Tsunami warning.
According to the public broadcaster NHK, the advisory was for several regions in the southwestern Japanese islands of Kyushu and Shikoku.
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The Japan Meteorological Agency initially said the earthquake registered a preliminary magnitude of 6.9, but it later upgraded the preliminary magnitude to 7.1. It issued a tsunami advisory, predicting waves of up to 1 metre (3.3ft) along the southern coast of Kyushu and the nearby island of Shikoku.
Operators of nuclear plants on Kyushu and Shikoku said they were checking to see if there was any damage to them.
Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean, and is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries.
An earthquake on January 1 in Japan’s north-central region of Noto left more than 240 people dead.