Japan earthquake highlights: Four deaths confirmed; tsunami warning lowered

A torii gate is damaged after an earthquake at a shrine in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture, Japan

Japan earthquake highlights: A major earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 hit north-central Japan on Monday afternoon. Soon after, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning along the coastal regions of Ishikawa, Niigata and Toyama prefectures. The Japan Meteorological Agency reported a quake hitting Ishikawa and nearby prefectures, one of them measuring a preliminary magnitude of 7.4. Waves more than 1 metre high hit the coast of Wajima City in Ishikawa Prefecture, NHK reported.

NHK TV also warned torrents of water could reach as high as 5 metres (16.5 feet) and urged people to flee to high land or the top of a nearby building as quickly as possible. Reports of any loss were not immediately available.

Japan is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake off northeastern Japan in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing. In March 2022, a 7.4-magnitude quake off the coast of Fukushima shook large areas of eastern Japan, killing three people. The capital Tokyo was devastated by a huge earthquake a century ago in 1923.