A powerful earthquake struck off the northern Japanese coast, and the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami alert in the region.The quake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 occurred off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan at around 4:53 p.m. (0753 GMT), at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the sea surface, the agency said.Japan’s NHK public television said a tsunami of up to 3 meters (10 feet) could hit the area shortly.It’s 15 years since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, ravaged parts of northern Japan, caused more than 22,000 deaths and forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes, most of them due to tsunami damage.Some 160,000 people fled their homes in Fukushima because of the radiation spewed from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. About 26,000 of them haven’t returned because they resettled elsewhere, their hometowns remain off-limits or they have lingering concerns about radiation.

, Tokyo —

A powerful earthquake struck off the northern Japanese coast, and the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami alert in the region.

The quake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 occurred off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan at around 4:53 p.m. (0753 GMT), at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the sea surface, the agency said.

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Tsunami Info Stmt: M7.4 Off East Coast Of Honshu, Japan  0053PDT Apr 20: Tsunami NOT expected; CA,OR,WA,BC,and AK

— NWS Tsunami Alerts (@NWS_NTWC) April 20, 2026

Japan’s NHK public television said a tsunami of up to 3 meters (10 feet) could hit the area shortly.

It’s 15 years since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, ravaged parts of northern Japan, caused more than 22,000 deaths and forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes, most of them due to tsunami damage.

Some 160,000 people fled their homes in Fukushima because of the radiation spewed from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. About 26,000 of them haven’t returned because they resettled elsewhere, their hometowns remain off-limits or they have lingering concerns about radiation.