A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 degrees occurred at 2:53 pm on April 20, local time.
This earthquake reached magnitude 5 on the Japanese seismic magnitude scale (7th scale) and was at a depth of 10km, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
This agency forecasts that a tsunami up to 3m high will immediately hit the Pacific coast of Hokkaido and Iwate provinces.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a 3m high tsunami warning for Iwate Prefecture and some areas of Hokkaido and Aomori.
In other areas of northeastern Japan, the agency issued a warning, estimating that tsunamis could reach 1m high.
Contrary to Japan's data, the US Tsunami Warning System said that the earthquake off the east coast of Honshu Island, Japan had a magnitude of 7.4.
