Earthquake jolts central Japan

The earthquake hit parts of the central Nagano city – 180 kilometers northwest of the capital Tokyo - and the surrounding areas on Saturday evening, local time. An aftershock, measured at 4.3 on Richter scale, followed about 30 minutes later.

Several people were injured and at least one building collapsed as a result of the quake, reported the Kyodo news agency.

According to the Japanese broadcaster NHK, the tremors were felt as far as Tokyo. Electricity was disrupted in parts of the city and a landslide blocked a road near a ski resort in the area, said NHK. High speed trains, including a Shinkansen bullet train service, were temporarily suspended.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said the earthquake caused no damage to any of the seven nuclear reactors at the dormant Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in neighboring Niigata prefecture.

Japan is prone to earthquakes as it sits at the conjunction of several tectonic plates. In March 2011, a massive 9.0 earthquake triggered a tsunami which damaged the atomic reactors in Fukushima. Some 18,000 people died or went missing as a result of the natural disaster.

China's Sichuan also rocked

Hours earlier, a 5.9-magnitude quake rocked China's southwestern province of Sichuan. Chinese state media reported that a 70-year-old woman died after being hit on the head by glass from a window. Fifteen other persons were injured.

That earthquake struck Sichuan's mountainous Kangding county, which is traditionally populated by ethnic Tibetans.

shs/ipj (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)