By KUNA,
Tokyo : An earthquake registering an estimated magnitude of 5.7 shook wide areas in eastern Japan including the Tokyo region on Thursday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
No tsunami warning was issued for the 4:19 a.m. (1919 GMT Wednesday) quake, the agency said, adding that the focus of the earthquake was 160 kilometers below ground in Yamagata Prefecture along the Sea of Japan coast.
The quake registered 4 on the Japanese seismic scale of 7 in some parts of Iwate Prefecture, about 450 km north of Tokyo.
The agency defines an intensity of 4 as “strong enough to shake buildings violently and make people walking feel it on the streets.” Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, accounting for about 20 percent of the world’s earthquakes of magnitude six or greater.