The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami warning after a strong earthquake measuring 7.1 jolted the country's northeastern coast already devastated by a much stronger tremor a month ago.
The quake struck at a depth of about 10 kilometers underwater off the coast of Fukushima-Ken Hamadori at 5.16 p.m. local time on Monday, the agency said on its website.
It issued a tsunami warning against waves of up to two meters in Ibaraki prefecture, and a tsunami advisory in the Pacific coast of the prefectures of Fukushima and Ibaraki, and in the Kujukuri and Sotobo regions of Chiba prefecture.
It has advised to evacuate immediately to safer places as tsunamis are expected to arrive soon in the coastal regions of Ibaraki.
The latest in a series of aftershocks occurred on a day the country observed a minute's silence marking a month of the dual tragedy.
A magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 killed more than 12,000 people and left over 15,000 missing across a swath of northeastern Japan.
Japan's National Police Agency estimates show that 190,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged by the quake and tsunami that wreaked havoc along the east coast.
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