Tsunami advisory issued in N. Japan after 6.9 quake: agency

Tokyo: Japan issued a tsunami advisory Tuesday morning following a 6.9-magnitude earthquake in northern Japan, the meteorological agency said.

The agency said a tsunami of up to one metre (3.3 feet) was forecast to hit the coast of Iwate at around 8:30 am (2330 GMT Monday).

Television footage has so far shown no major change in sea levels around the seashore in Miyako, eastern Iwate.

The quake struck at 8:06 am in the Pacific some 210 kilometres (130 miles) east of Miyako at a depth of 10 kilometres, the agency said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or casualties following the quake, local media said.

Large areas of the coastline covered by the advisory were damaged by the 2011 quake and tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people and triggered a nuclear accident in Fukushima.

The city of Ofunato in Iwate issued an evacuation advisory to more than 1,350 households.

Japan is hit by around a fifth of the world´s powerful quakes every year and sits at the conjunction of several tectonic plates.

There was no damage to any of nuclear reactors in the region as they have been off-line since 2011, Japan´s public broadcaster NHK said. (AFP)