An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale has struck northeast Japan – the same region devastated by last year’s quake and tsunami.
There have been no reports of any casualties or damage and no tsunami warning was issued.
High-speed bullet trains serving northern Japan were temporarily suspended but resumed later.
The tremor, which shook buildings in Tokyo, struck off the northeast coast of the main island of Honshu.
Its epicentre was 316 miles away from the capital, off the coast of Iwate, and about six miles below sea level.
The US Geological Survey received reports of the quake even further still from the city of Zushi, in Kanagawa, located 344 miles from the quake’s epicentre.
No abnormalities were reported at nuclear power plants in the region – including Fukushima.
The nuclear facility was severely damaged by Japan’s strongest earthquake on record which left almost 20,000 people dead or missing.
The 8.9 magnitude quake on March 11, 2011, triggered a tsunami and caused the world’s worst nuclear crisis since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
