Japan was hit by a strong earthquake and tsunami warning Thursday night nearly a month after a devastating temblor and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast.
Japan's meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning but lifted all alerts less than two hours later. The warning had been issued for a coastal area that was torn apart by the twin disasters March 11.
Thursday's earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of at least 7.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck off the coast of Miyagi prefecture at a depth of about 30 miles. The quake that preceded last month's tsunami was a 9.0-magnitude.
NHK said that the Tokyo Electric Power Company reported no problems at its crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex. All the workers were said to have been evacuated to a safe location.
Parts of Tokyo "shook for about two minutes," NPR's Greg Dixon reported, even though the quake epicenter was more than 200 miles away. He said there were no immediate reports of damage.
NPR's John Burnett said he was in bed on 32nd floor of a hotel in Sendai, about 40 miles from the epicenter, when the building began to shake.
"It started shaking back and forth tremendously, and the hangers in the closet made quite a racket and then the hotel alarm system went on," Burnett said. "We heard the voice of someone on the PA saying that the elevators were down."
NHK also was reporting that the earthquake hit the Tohoku region in northern Japan — the same region that was devastated by the March earthquake and tsunami. Hundreds of aftershocks have shaken the northeast region since last month's temblor, but few have been stronger than 7.0.
With reporting from NPR's Greg Dixon in Tokyo. Material from The Associated Press was used in this story. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]
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