Tokyo: An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck off the northeastern coast of Japan on Monday, as authorities urged residents to stay away from coastal areas where tsunami waves of up to 3 metres (9.84 ft) were expected. The tremor had an epicentre in the Pacific Ocean and was 10km deep, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The biggest waves were expected in Iwate, Aomori and Hokkaido prefectures, authorities said. Speaking to reporters, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the government had set up an emergency task force and urged citizens in the affected areas to evacuate to safety. Broadcaster NHK showed ships sailing out of Hachinohe port in Hokkaido in anticipation of the waves, as an alert \u2018Tsunami! Evacuate!\u2019 flashed across the screen. Bullet train services in Aomori at the northern tip of Japan\u2019s main Honshu island were halted due to the tremors, Kyodo news agency reported. The quake measured an \u2018upper 5\u2019 on Japan\u2019s seismic intensity scale \u2014 strong enough to make it difficult for people to move around. In many cases, unreinforced concrete-block walls collapse. APP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tokyo: An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 struck off the northeastern coast of Japan on Monday, as authorities urged residents to stay away from coastal areas where tsunami waves of up to 3 metres (9.84 ft) were expected. The tremor had an epicentre in the Pacific Ocean and was 10km deep, according to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-542881","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n