7.5 earthquake causes injuries in Japan

The temblor off northern Honshu island also triggers a 28-inch tsunami.

- BY MARI YAMAGUCHI

JAPANESE Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi urged people to heed all safety alerts.

(REN ONUMA Kyodo News)

A powerful magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck off northern Japan late Monday, injuring more than 20 people and triggering a tsunami of up to 28 inches in Pacific coast communities, officials said.

The Japanese government was still assessing damage from the tsunami and late-evening quake, which struck about 11:15 in the Pacific Ocean about 50 miles off the coast of Aomori, the northernmost prefecture of Japan’s main Honshu island.

“I've never experienced such a big shaking,” convenience store owner Nobuo Yamada told public broadcaster NHK in the Aomori prefecture town of Hachinohe, adding that “luckily” power lines were still operating in his area.

A tsunami of 2.3 feet was measured in Kuji port in Iwate prefecture, just south of Aomori, and tsunami levels of up to 1.6 feet struck other coastal communities in the region, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.