Trains were stopped on Sunday in a large area of northeastern Japan after more than 100 people were injured in an earthquake that appeared to be a replica of the devastating earthquake that struck the area in 2011.
The magnitude 7.3 earthquake occurred just before midnight on Saturday and cracked walls, shattered windows and triggered a landslide in Fukushima, the area closest to the epicenter.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake was considered to be a aftershock after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake of March 11, 2011, which triggered a tsunami and the worst nuclear accident in the world in 25 years. The agency warned about the retorts for several days.
The quake shook buildings in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, hundreds of kilometers away.
Although hundreds of thousands of buildings lost electricity immediately after the quake, which occurred at 23:08 local time (1408 GMT), the power had been restored at most on Sunday morning.
However, several thousand households were left without water, and residents lined up with plastic climbs to receive water from trucks.
Power outages have not affected any of the Pfizer Inc COVID-19 vaccines that arrived on Friday for vaccinations to begin this week, Cabinet Chief Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a news conference Sunday morning.
At least 104 people were injured, NHK national television said, including some who suffered fractures but no deaths were reported.
There were no tsunamis and no irregularities were reported at any nuclear power plant. NHK reported that approximately 160 ml (5 ounces) of water was drained from a spent fuel tank at the Fukushima Dai-Ni reactor, but that this posed no danger.