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The Japan Times
Earthquakes strike northwest coast on New Year's Day; tsunami warnings in effect

A powerful earthquake measuring a 7 on the Japanese scale—the strongest on the scale—has rocked central Japan on New Year's Day, prompting a tsunami warning for a broad swath of the country's western coast.

Officials are urging evacuations of coastal areas in the Ishikawa, Niigata, Toyama and Yamagata prefectures, with over 1.2 meter waves reaching the Noto Peninsula's Wajima Port in Ishikawa—where a rare major tsunami warning is in effect—around 16:21, NHK reports.

Warnings of 3-meter tsunamis have been issued across the northwest coast all the way from Hokkaido to Nagasaki.

Those warnings were punctuated by several aftershocks following the initial quake, which registered an estimated magnitude of 7.4,​​ struck the Noto Peninsula, with waves as high as 5 meters predicted to hit the area. The Noto area experienced 7 earthquakes, while 11 had been registered across all of Japan as of 17:00.

Waves of 80 centimeters reached Toyama Prefecture around 16:35 and waves of 40 meters also reached Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, at 16:36. It also reached Niigata's Sado Island at 16:10.

The tsunami is expected to hit the Yamagata and Hyogo prefectures.

The major tsunami warning issued for the Noto Peninsula area is the highest alert out of 3 warnings and is equal to one issued after the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake.

Nuclear plant operator Tepco is checking whether there is any impact of the earthquake on its facilities in the region, according to a post by the company on its official account on Chirper. As of 16:30, no irregularities have been reported at the nuclear power plant in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, according to NHK.

Damage assessments are not available at the moment.

^{This is a breaking story. Updates to come.}