A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 jolted eastern and central Japan early on Tuesday, throwing food and bottles from shop shelves and rattling houses across Tokyo, Reuters reported.
The focus of the 5:07 a.m. (2007 GMT, Monday) tremor was 20 km (12 miles) below the surface of Suruga Bay, the Japan Meteorological Agency said, in Shizuoka prefecture, around 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Tokyo. A tsunami of up to 60 cm (24 inches) was recorded along the Pacific coast.
"It was a sideways shaking like I've never experienced before. Things fell from the shelves," Atsushi Imai, a local city employee, told national broadcaster NHK.
Chubu Electric Power Co Inc <9502.T> suspended operations at its Hamaoka nuclear plant after the quake for safety checks.
Some highways were closed after electric signboards failed to operate and at least one train line was halted, NHK said.
TV pictures showed glass bottles shattered on a convenience store floor and a TV newsroom with video tapes thrown from shelves.
"There are no reports of fire. Someone hurt their leg after a TV fell off a shelf and was taken to hospital," Kinichi Tashiro, a fire department official in Yaizu, Shizuoka, told NHK.
Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.
In October 2004, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the Niigata region in northern Japan, killing 65 people and injuring more than 3,000.
That was the deadliest quake since a magnitude 7.3 tremor hit the city of Kobe in 1995, killing more than 6,400.
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