A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.1 shook the Japanese capital Tokyo on Thursday evening at 10:41 p.m. local time.
A flood warning was not issued.
But the authorities warned of possible aftershocks.
The shutdown of the Tokai 2 nuclear power plant in the neighboring prefecture of Ibaraki did not report any abnormal observations in an initial inventory, reported the television station NHK.
Patrick Welter
Correspondent for business and politics in Japan, based in Tokyo.
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According to initial information from the authorities, there were several injured. There were initially no reports of major damage. Immediately after the quake, television images from different parts of Tokyo showed that night life apparently continued normally. The operation of high-speed trains has been temporarily suspended. Also, some subways in Tokyo did not run for the time being. Long lines formed in front of taxi ranks at Shinagawa Station. A S-Bahn in Tokyo going west slowed down after the quake with fully occupied compartments. Elevators were switched off automatically. Pictures from Tokyo showed burst water pipes in the sewer system and partly flooded streets. According to the electricity company, electricity went out in around 250 households at times.
According to the authorities, the hypocenter was located in the neighboring prefecture of Chiba directly on Tokyo Bay, about 80 kilometers below the surface of the earth.
There were initially no reports of possible damage from Narita Airport in Chiba.
According to the meteorological authority, it was the worst earthquake that had been felt in the Tokyo area since March 2011.
At that time, a magnitude 9 earthquake in northeast Tokyo triggered a tsunami that killed around 20,000 people.
After the tsunami, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered a threefold meltdown.