Japan tsunami warnings lifted

Tsunami warnings have been lifted after a 7.3 magnitude quake struck 250 kilometres off the eastern coast of Japan.

Tremors were felt as far away as Tokyo, but fears for the Miyagi region, the area which was devastated by a massive magnitude 9 earthquake last year, were unfounded as a one metre wave failed to cause any major damage.

ITV News Correspondent Tim Ewart reports:

Kyodo News in Tokyo has released video of their offices shaking during the earthquake.

The video which goes on for 40 seconds shows sustained shaking with lights swaying as people try and steady their computers:

Reuters are reporting that the tsunami warning for north-eastern Japan has been lifted according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

The Japan Meteorological Agency is reporting another magnitude 3.9 aftershock.

A Reuters update reports that Tokyo Electric Power did not evacuate the Fukushima nuclear power plants but instead workers reached a safe position within the facility.

Tokyo Electric Power has ordered its workers to evacuate the Fukushima nuclear power plants following tsunami warnings, Reuters reported.

A metre high tsunami has hit the Miyagi Prefecture in north-east Japan, Reuters reports, citing the Japanese broadcaster NHK.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has cancelled campaigning in Tokyo ahead of a 16th December election and is on his way back to his office, but there was no immediate plan to hold a special cabinet meeting, according to Reuters.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has produced a map showing the epicentre of an 10km-deep aftershock measured at magnitude 5.3.

A tsunami warning has been issued for the Miyagi Prefecture, marked in red on the map above.

The same area was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

That quake triggered fuel-rod meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing radiation leakage, contamination of food and water and mass evacuations in the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.