A magnitude-7.2 earthquake shook north-eastern Japan early Saturday, killing at lest three people and injuring more than 100, dpa reported.
Michitaka Ishii, 55, was found dead in the ocean in Fukushima province. He was reportedly pushed into the water by a landslide while fishing at the time of the earthquake, according to police.
No tsunami warnings were issued.
Tomozo Chiba, 60, died after being hit by a truck in Iwate province as he left the house during the earthquake.
Masahiko Chiba, 48, died in a hospital after he was hit by rolling rocks and rendered unconscious.
Some 20 passengers and a driver were trapped inside a bus, which rolled off a road. While 16 were rescued, four were seriously wounded, television reports said.
Five people were rescued out of a hotel which collapsed in a landslide at a hot spring resort of Koma in Miyagi province. Two others remain buried under earth.
Japan's Self-Defence Force and the Tokyo Fire Department sent relief teams to rescue people buried under collapsed houses and landslides in the quake-hit regions.
More than 100 people were injured in the quake hit-regions, and about 29,000 households were left without electricity.
Radioactive water splashed at a Tokyo Electric Power Co plant in Fukushima province, but no leakage or other damage was reported at four nuclear power plants in the quake-hit regions, according to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
The epicentre of the quake was approximately eight kilometres beneath south Iwate, the meteorological agency.