Magnitude 5.4 earthquake shakes Tokyo and eastern Japan, causing transportation delays

An earthquake of magnitude 5.4 has shaken the prefecture of Chiba (eastern Japan), in addition to Tokyo, during the early hours of Thursday morning, and has caused delays in several transport lines and several injuries.

The earthquake occurred at 04:16 in the Japanese morning (19:16 GMT on Wednesday) with its epicenter in the city of Kisarazu, south of Chiba, and at a depth of 40 kilometers, as reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency ( JMA), which did not activate the tsunami warning.

The quake has reached level 5 on the Japanese scale of 7 levels, focused on measuring unrest on the surface and damage, in the prefectures closest to the epicenter.

Two women suffered minor injuries in Chiba, the fire service has reported, while a third person fell at his home in Yokohama, in nearby Kanagawa prefecture, also sustaining minor injuries.

Several subway lines, such as the Asakusa line, or the JR East train (from Chiba), have suffered delays in the areas where the tremor was most strongly felt in order to verify safety on the tracks.

“The areas where the tremor was felt most strongly could suffer other earthquakes of magnitude 5 or higher on the Japanese scale this week. Especially in the next 2 or 3 days,” JMA spokeswoman Noriko Kayama told state broadcaster NHK.

Japan sits on the so-called Ring of Fire, one of the most active seismic zones in the world, and registers earthquakes with relative frequency, so its infrastructures are specially designed to withstand tremors.