Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen led other world leaders offering support to Japan after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake jolted the country's northeastern side on Saturday, injuring at least 130 people, Japan Today reported.
The powerful quake was described as a delayed aftershock of the devastating 9.0 magnitude temblor that shook the same area nearly a decade ago, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The earthquake on March 11, 2011, triggered Japan's worst nuclear catastrophe on record as tsunami waves incapacitated the Tokyo Electric Power Daiichi nuclear plant on the northeastern coast on Fukushima prefecture on the main island of Honshu.
At the weekend earthquake, at least 48 people were reported hurt in Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, state broadcaster NHK reported, but there were no major casualties.
"As I have said time and again, our resolve to continue to support Japan is unwavering," Japan Today quoted Tsai as tweeting in Japanese. Taiwan, the president said, will "rush to you any time the people of Japan need assistance."
The earthquake rocked buildings in Japan's capital city of Tokyo hundreds of miles away. Although electricity was cut off from around 900,000 households at one-point moments following the tremor, power had been restored to most by the next morning.
East Japan Railway said the Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train services between Morioka Station in Iwate Prefecture and Nasushiobara Station in Tochigi Prefecture have been suspended.
Some 64 evacuation centers have been set up in Fukushima and around 200 people are taking shelter, the Fukushima prefectural government said.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said during a cabinet meeting Sunday morning that no deaths were reported after the late-night quake, which did not trigger a tsunami warning.
Suga also reassured the public that "no abnormalities" have been reported at any of the nuclear facilities in the region following Saturday's quake.
Earthquakes are common in Japan. The country, one of the most seismically active areas in the world, accounts for around 20% of the planet's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or higher.
