6.3-magnitude earthquake hits Japan's Ishikawa prefecture, no tsunami threat: JMAA

TOKYO -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck Ishikawa Prefecture on the Sea of Japan side of central Japan and surrounding areas on Friday, but there is no threat of a damaging tsunami, Japan's weather agency said.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), the temblor occurred at 2:42 p.m. local time (0542 GMT), at a depth of 10 km, registering an upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in the city of Suzu, upper 5 in Noto and lower 5 in Wajima.

The agency said there was no threat of a tsunami, but sea level changes of less than 20 centimeters were possible.

No abnormalities have been detected at the Shika nuclear power plant in Ishikawa, as well as at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in the neighboring prefecture of Niigata, Kyodo News reported.