Japan: a violent earthquake hits the Fukushima region

Destroyed building in Soma, Fukishima area, on March 17.

PA

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At least one person was killed and a hundred others injured in the violent earthquake that struck northeastern Japan on Wednesday evening.

The tremor, measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale, occurred in the region devastated eleven years ago by the most powerful earthquake in recent Japanese history followed by a gigantic tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident.

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with our correspondent in Tokyo, 

The government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida remains on alert fearing aftershocks in the days to come.

The earthquake occurred 100 km south of the

, 60 km deep under the Pacific Ocean, where eleven years ago a much more violent tremor, followed by giant waves left more than 18,500 dead and missing. , and partially destroyed the Fukushima nuclear power plant. 

The earthquake of March 11, 2011

was accompanied by numerous aftershocks.

Two of them reached, in 2012 and 2016, a magnitude equal to that which struck northeastern Japan last night.

►Also read: Japan: Fukushima water will be discharged into the ocean via an underwater tunnel

This latest tremor has caused more fear than harm.

The tsunami warning was lifted soon after.

It caused the derailment of a high-speed train without causing any casualties, cracked roads, overturned displays in stores.

More worryingly, semiconductor and electronic component companies have been forced to stop production.

On the financial analysis site

, Jim Hardy wonders if this earthquake in Japan will worsen the shortage of semiconductors in the world.

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