Magnitude 6.2 Quake Shakes Japan's Hokkaido

(MENAFN) A magnitude 6.2 earthquake jolted Japan's northern island of Hokkaido early Monday, rattling the Tokachi region with enough force to make standing difficult — though no tsunami warning was issued, Japanese media reported.

The Japan Meteorological Agency placed the tremor at approximately 83 kilometers (51 miles) beneath the surface, registering an upper 5 on Japan's 7-point seismic intensity scale — a threshold at which individuals struggle to move without gripping a fixed surface for support.

As of Monday morning, no casualties or structural damage had been confirmed.

Officials at the Tomari nuclear power plant reported no irregularities following the tremor. While several local rail lines running along Hokkaido's Pacific coastline halted services as a precautionary measure, Hokkaido Shinkansen bullet train operations continued uninterrupted.

Authorities were quick to clarify that Monday's earthquake bears no connection to an existing regional seismic advisory currently in effect.

That advisory was triggered one week ago, when a powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck Aomori prefecture in northeastern Japan — prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to issue a weeklong elevated alert across seven at-risk zones, Hokkaido among them, warning residents of a heightened probability of a major follow-up quake.

The back-to-back seismic events have placed Japan's disaster response agencies on heightened alert across the country's vulnerable northern corridor.

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