Residents in some parts of northern Japan are being told to evacuate immediately after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck near Fukushima in country’s northeast.
A tsunami warning has been issued for local coastlines and people are people told to flee to higher ground or taller buildings.
According to the US Geological Survey the quake struck at 6am local time approximately 67 kilometres northeast of Iwaki, at a depth of 10 kilometres.
Fukushima prefecture is north of Tokyo and home to the nuclear power plant that was destroyed by a huge tsunami following an offshore earthquake in 2011.
While there was no damage to the plants reported they have been taken offline as a precaution.
Following the Japan quake the Bureau of Meteorology tweeted a statement to say there was currently no tsunami threat to Australia.
