Japan Assesses Damage After Earthquake Struck Near Fukushima

(Bloomberg) -- Japan began assessing damage and restoring power after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck off Fukushima late Saturday, leaving about 150 people injured and temporarily cutting power to almost a million households.

No deaths were reported, according to public broadcaster NHK, and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference on Sunday that no incidents were reported from reactors. Six coal- and gas-fired power units, with a combined capacity of 3.6 gigawatts, are offline due to the quake without any timeline for restart, according to the Japan Electric Power Exchange.

The powerful tremor, which was felt in Tokyo, occurred just one month before the 10-year anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that led to a meltdown at three nuclear units of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant and left about 19,000 people dead or missing. Japan’s national meteorologist said that latest tremor was an aftershock of the 2011 quake.

Read more on the Japan earthquake here.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said there was a minor overflow of water from the pool that stores used nuclear fuels at the Fukushima nuclear plants, but no uncontrolled radiation activities were seen, NHK reported.

Other businesses impacted include:

The Saturday-night tremor hit the Tohoku region, 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. More than 830,000 households in the Tohoku and Kanto regions experienced power outages, but supply resumed in most areas by Sunday morning.

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