Japanese officials have said that a 6.5-magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of Ishikawa Prefecture in western Japan on Friday. The media reported that several structures had collapsed and people had been injured.
Hirokazu Matsuno, the chief cabinet secretary, said at a rush press conference that one individual had experienced cardiac arrest following the earthquake but provided no other information. Both the nearby Shika nuclear power plant and the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in the surrounding Niigata prefecture had no irregularities detected, Matsuno continued.
Although there was no tsunami warning, Japan’s weather authorities revised the earthquake’s magnitude from a preliminary 6.3 to 6.5 and issued a warning against aftershocks.
A representative of the meteorological department stated that “earthquakes of large magnitude may occur, especially in the next three days,” adding that tremors have followed the big quake. He warned locals to remain vigilant for approximately a week in case there were any other earthquake events with a seismic strength of 6 or higher on the Japanese scale, which goes up to 7.
According to Matsuno, the government established an earthquake reaction center under the leadership of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. “Prime Minister Kishida instructed us to do everything in our power for relief and rescue,” he added.
“We will take whatever action is necessary, depending on the damage and impact from the earthquake,” Matsuno further said.
