{"id":616413,"date":"2026-04-20T11:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/616413\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T11:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:44:09","slug":"japan-issues-advisory-for-slightly-increased-risk-of-mega-quake-in-northern-coastal-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/616413\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan issues advisory for slightly increased risk of mega-quake in northern coastal areas"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

Japan issued an advisory on Monday for an increased risk of a possible mega-quake in northern coastal areas, induced by a major earthquake earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there is a one per cent chance for a mega-quake occurring on the northern Japanese coast in the next week or so following the powerful quake earlier Monday near the Chishima trough.<\/p>\n

Officials said the advisory is not a quake prediction but urged residents to raise their preparedness, such as having emergency food and a go bag, while continuing their daily lives.<\/p>\n

The advisory for the region is the second in recent months. One was issued following another major quake in December. No major subsequent quake occurred.<\/p>\n

Earlier Monday, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of\u00a0Japan\u00a0on Monday, as authorities urged residents to stay away from coastal areas where tsunami waves of up to three metres were expected.<\/p>\n

The biggest waves were forecast to hit Iwate and Aomori prefectures\u00a0at\u00a0the top\u00a0of\u00a0Japan’s main Honshu island, and the northern island of Hokkaido, authorities said.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Japan leads the world in earthquake response. Here’s why:\"\"<\/p>\n

Here’s why Japan leads the world in responding to earthquakes<\/p>\n

Japan was hit with a 7.6 magnitude earthquake on Monday, triggering widespread shaking and tsunami alerts \u2014 serving as yet another example of the nation\u2019s world-leading quake response efforts. CBC\u2019s Johanna Wagstaffe<\/p>\n

There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage, Japan’s \u2060top government spokesperson Minoru \u2060Kihara told a news conference as night fell \u200cin the capital, Tokyo.<\/p>\n

In the hour following the earthquake, which struck at 4:52 p.m. local time, tsunami waves as high as 80 centimetres had been detected, while warnings remained for waves as high as three metres. Japan’s Meteorological Agency (JMA) kept their tsunami alert in place while the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the tsunami threat from the quake “has now passed.”<\/p>\n

Several port towns including Otsuchi and Kamaishi \u2014 both hard-hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 \u2014 issued evacuation orders for thousands of residents, according to public broadcaster NHK.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Big aftershocks anticipated<\/p>\n

Big aftershocks may occur in the following days and weeks, an official from\u00a0JMA said at a separate televised press conference.<\/p>\n

Ships sailed out of Hachinohe port in\u00a0Hokkaido in anticipation of the waves, footage aired on NHK\u00a0showed, as a “Tsunami! Evacuate!” alert flashed across the screen. A three-meter tsunami could cause damage to low-lying areas, flooding buildings, and anybody exposed would be caught in its currents, according to JMA.<\/p>\n

Bullet train services in Aomori were halted due to the tremors, Kyodo news agency reported.<\/p>\n

The quake measured an “upper 5” on\u00a0Japan’s seismic intensity scale \u2014 strong enough to make it difficult for people to move around and cause unreinforced concrete-block walls to collapse. The tremor had an epicentre in the Pacific Ocean and was 10 kilometres deep, JMA said.<\/p>\n

Located in the “Ring of Fire” of volcanoes and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin, \u00a0Japan\u00a0is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, with a tremor occurring at least every five minutes.<\/p>\n

It accounts for about 20 per cent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude 6.0 or more, such as the 2011 disaster that caused nuclear meltdowns at a Fukushima power plant.<\/p>\n

Another 7.5 magnitude quake in December left dozens injured.<\/p>\n

It’s been more than 15 years since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, ravaged parts of northern Japan, caused more than 22,000 deaths and forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes, most of them due to tsunami damage.<\/p>\n

Some 160,000 people fled their homes in Fukushima because of the radiation spewed from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. About 26,000 of them haven’t returned because they resettled elsewhere, their hometowns remain off-limits or they have lingering concerns about radiation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-616413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}