Small tsunami waves reached the Pacific coast of northern Japan yesterday after a major quake hit the region heavily damaged by the March earthquake and tsunami, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The port towns of Soma and Ofunato saw 10cm tsunami waves triggered by the magnitude 7.3 earthquake that struck off the main island of Honshu at 9:57am, the agency said.
No damage has been reported from either the tsunamis or the quake, which was strong enough to sway skyscrapers in Tokyo, some 400km from the epicenter.
The Japanese agency and the US Geological Survey originally estimated the quake’s magnitude at 7.1, hitting the same general area as the magnitude 9.0 quake of March 11.
While Japan upgraded the quake to 7.3, the US agency revised it down to 7.0, centered 212km east of Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, at a depth of 34.9km.
The Japanese agency lifted its tsunami advisory at 11:45am.
“Changes in sea level may occur for the next few hours. Please use caution when conducting activities near the ocean, such as swimming and surf fishing,” a Japanese weather agency official told a news briefing.
Television footage of Ofunato and Soma did not show any visible sign of the tsunami, with the water surface seemingly calm and flat.
Tokyo Electric Power Co said the latest quake did not cause fresh problems at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant and the nearby Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear power plant.
“We have received reports that there has been no significant impact at the Fukushima Dai-ichi and the Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear plants,” a company spokesman told a news conference.
Cooling of crippled reactors at Fukushima Dai-ichi continued, although the company told work crews near the water to seek higher ground during the tsunami advisory.
The Japanese weather agency originally expected a small tsunami of up to 50cm along the affected region.
Communities along the Pacific coast issued warnings and advisories for residents to seek higher ground or to leave areas near the water.
“For a second, I thought maybe another big one will come,” a middle-aged man in coastal Kesennuma, Miyagi, told national broadcaster NHK.
The March 11 and tsunami left about 22,000 people dead or missing and triggered a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.
TAIWAN IMPACT
Meanwhile, the Central Weather Bureau said that unlike March’s massive quake that caused a tsunami threat to Taiwan, yesterday’s quake in Japan had no impact on Taiwan and the tsunami alert mainly applied to Japan.
However, the bureau did detect three earthquakes between 12am and 9am yesterday, ranging from magnitude 3.3 to magnitude 3.7, which it categorized as regional earthquakes.
The first tremblor occurred off the coast of Taitung at 12:11am and had a magnitude of 3.7. The other two occurred simultaneously off the coast of Hualien at 8:28am and had magnitudes 3.3 and 3.6.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)