Quake shakes buildings in Tokyo

TOKYO: A moderate earthquake hit eastern Japan on Friday, shaking buildings in Tokyo, seismologists said, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The 5.3-magnitude tremor quake struck 59 kilometres (37 miles) northeast of the capital at a depth of 60km at 9:01pm (1201 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. No tsunami warning was triggered.

Japan, located at the junction of four tectonic plates, experiences 20 percent of the strongest quakes recorded on Earth each year.

Small tsunami waves reached the Pacific coast of northern Japan Sunday after a major quake hit the region heavily damaged by the March earthquake and tsunami.

The port towns of Soma and Ofunato saw 10-centimetre (four-inch) tsunami waves triggered by the 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck off the main island of Honshu at 9:57 am (0057 GMT), the agency said.

The devastating March 11 and tsunami left about 22,000 people dead or missing and triggered an atomic crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011