A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck northeastern Japan at around 11:08 p.m. on Saturday, local time. No tsunami warning has been issued.
The intensity of the quake registered six-plus on the Japanese scale of zero to seven.
Tohoku Electric Power Company says the earthquake has left 8,500 households without electricity in Miyagi Prefecture.
Power outages have been confirmed in Marumori, Watari town, Kurihara-city, Tome-city, and others.
An estimated magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck northern Japan at 11:08 p.m. on Saturday, local time.
The quake registered a maximum intensity of six-plus on the Japanese scale of zero to seven.
Tokyo Electric Power Company is checking its nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture after a strong earthquake struck the region on Saturday night.
TEPCO says its workers are confirming if there are any abnormalities with the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Researchers say that while PCR testing for the coronavirus is broadly accurate in Japan, some laboratories have room for improvement.
Commissioned by the health ministry, researchers from Tokai University and another group that includes academics surveyed 563 testing facilities across Japan.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials say 369 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in the Japanese capital on Saturday.
The daily tally has been below 500 for seven days in a row.
Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko says the new president of the Tokyo organizing committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games should be a leader who can send a message of diversity and harmony.
Koike spoke to reporters on Friday after committee president Mori Yoshiro offered to resign over remarks that were criticized as demeaning to women.
The Japanese government plans to keep a coronavirus state of emergency in place for Tokyo, Osaka, and eight other prefectures in light of high bed occupancy rates at hospitals.
The government decided last week to extend the state of emergency for the 10 prefectures until March 7. Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide said he was prepared to end it sooner if circumstances improved.
Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority says it will thoroughly review an incident in which a Tokyo Electric Power Company worker entered a control room at a nuclear plant using another worker's ID card.
The security breach took place at TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant in Niigata Prefecture last September. A worker who had lost his ID card took another worker's ID card from a locker and used it to enter the central control room.
A former chairman of Japan's professional soccer league, Kawabuchi Saburo, may be tapped to replace Mori Yoshiro as president of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics organizing committee.
Sources say arrangements are being made to pick Mori's successor, with Kawabuchi as a key candidate. Mori has decided to step down in the face of criticism over his comments about women.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 434 new coronavirus infections in the capital on Thursday. The daily tally has been below 500 for five days in a row.
A total of 105,458 people have tested positive for the virus in Tokyo since the pandemic began.
Sources say the head of the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games has decided to resign.
Mori Yoshiro, a former prime minister, has faced a barrage of criticism for remarks demeaning women.
Vietnamese technical intern trainees in Japan have celebrated the Lunar New Year at a Buddhist temple north of Tokyo.
More than 30 Vietnamese trainees, including some who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, are staying at the Daionji Temple in the city of Honjo in Saitama Prefecture. The temple's priest is a Vietnamese woman.
A panel of experts at Japan's health ministry has given the green light to a coronavirus vaccine jointly developed by US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German partner BioNTech.
The expert panel made the decision at a meeting on Thursday evening after they examined findings on the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.