Image source, Reuters

The East Japan Railway Company says its bullet train operations between Tokyo and Hachinohe have resumed.

The services between the capital and Morioka Station and Fukushima have also started back up again.

Operations remain suspended between Morioka and Akita. There is currently no time scheduled for these services to resume. There are delays remaining between Fukushima and Shinjo.

The operator said it had to suspend services due to the earthquake.

Chika Nakayama
Reporting from Tokyo

The Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) says that the possibility of a large earthquake following today's 7.7 one is "relatively high".

It has issued a subsequent earthquake advisory off the coasts of Hokkaido and Sanriku, but says that in such cases, the probability of the larger earthquake is only about one in 100.

This represents a roughly tenfold increase in risk compared to normal conditions when it's usually 0.1% or less.

Japanese authorities say it is essential that people remain vigilant for about a week, and are advised to make preparations to evacuate and confirm what routes they would take to do so should the need arise.

The JMA says that it's not guaranteed a large quake will happen again, adding that there is no need for advance evacuation.

Images show people on the move after Japan tsunami warningpublished at 13:45 BST

13:45 BST

Image source, Threads

By Kumar Malhotra and Sherie Ryder

Images verified by the BBC show busy roads heading away from the coast of northeast Japan after an earthquake earlier today resulted in tsunami warnings from local authorities.

These have now been downgraded to advisories - although the authorities say people should stay away from the coast.

In one image, which we located to the city of Hachinohe, three queues of heavy traffic can be seen heading southwards along a main road.

Other images from the city show people in cars turning up at a military installation to seek shelter inland and away from the city’s port area.

We checked these pictures emerged online today and geolocated where they were taken by using street view mapping.

Kris Bramwell
BBC News

Image source, Sophia Kapsalis

Sophia Kapsalis and her partner Daniel Wilkinson have been travelling for six months and are currently at the end of a road trip around Hokkaido.

The pair, both from England, say they were driving along the highway at 16:45 local time when the emergency alert app NERV "blew up saying we had 30 seconds until the earthquake hit".

They pulled over and felt quite light shocks from the quake. "We definitely felt it,” Sophia says. “The car was wobbling and windows of houses near us were shaking".

She says they've been driving inland since it happened but are struggling to get information about where they should be heading.

They are “currently trying to get back to towns without going along the highway which is along the coast stuck going through rural small mountain roads in the dark," she says.

Image source, Sophia Kapsalis

Kris Bramwell
BBC News

Image source, David Park

David Park from Leeds is currently on a plane travelling from Hakodate to Tokyo on the eighth day of a trip to Japan with his friends Diana and Alin from Newcastle.

The 31-year-old says he and his friends felt today's earthquake whilst waiting in their hotel in Hakodate.

He says while they sat in the lobby, there was "suddenly a really low rumbling".

“All of a sudden, the building started swaying and everyone's phones sounded the emergency alarm alerting to an earthquake, then about 30 seconds later, a warning for the tsunami," he tells the BBC.

“The shaking lasted for a good 20 to 30 seconds - it was really surreal feeling the floors and walls move and seeing the lights and plants sway around."

He says everyone gathered to watch the TV, where they saw the news alerting them of the earthquake and tsunami warnings.

“Nobody seemed to panic but there was a sense of unease."

They left for the airport and David says lots of shops were closed and they got stuck in traffic.

During the journey, he says they could hear tsunami warning sirens going off.

As we have been reporting, the tsunami warnings have been downgraded to advisories across Japan’s northeast coast.

However, emergency alert app NERV says people are still advised to remain away from the coast and to avoid any large bodies of water until the advisories have been lifted.

Government evacuation orders, issued after the earlier tsunami warnings, mean around 156,000 people were told to evacuate across five prefectures.

Japanese authorities have now downgraded the tsunami warnings in place around the northeastern coast to advisories., external

Japan has three categories of tsunami alerts.

• A Tsunami Advisory is the lowest-level alert, issued for waves below one metre. At this height, people are advised to get out of the sea and leave coastal areas immediately
• A Tsunami Warning is the second-highest alert. These are issued for waves expected to be up to three metres high
• When a warning is issued, the agency says those in tsunami warning areas must evacuate immediately from coastal regions and riverside areas and move to higher ground or an evacuation building
• The highest alert is called a Major Tsunami Warning where tsunami waves over three metres in height are expected to hit repeatedly.

Japanese authorities have revised the magnitude of the earthquake which struck earlier to 7.7.

It was initially announced as having a magnitude of 7.5.

The depth at which the quake occurred has also been revised from 10km to 19km (11.8 miles).

Video footage from Hokkaido shows waves swelling close to the shore.

Hokkaido was one of the areas where a tsunami warning was issued, following the earthquake striking off Japan’s northeast coast.

Image source, Reuters

"As soon as we heard the earthquake alert, everyone ran downstairs," Chaw Su Thwe, a Myanmar national living in Hokkaido, tells the BBC. "However, this time the shaking was relatively mild."

She's one of many young people who have moved to Japan from Myanmar for work after the military coup there in 2021.

"Right now, local authorities are using loudspeakers in the neighbourhood to warn people about a possible tsunami and to stay alert. Office workers have been allowed to leave work early," she says.

"At my workplace, the boss has told us to stay cautious and to come to them if anything happens."

Image source, Reuters

Tsunami warnings and advisories for various parts of Japan’s northeastern coast are in place.

Japan has three categories of tsunami alerts, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency., external

A Major Tsunami Warning is for waves considered “huge”. These are issued when waves of 5 to 10m are expected.

A Tsunami Warning is the second-highest alert, issued for waves expected to be around 1 to 3 metres high.

The agency says those in the warning areas must evacuate immediately from coastal regions and riverside areas and move to higher ground or an evacuation building.

A tsunami advisory is the lowest-level alert, issued for waves below 1 metre. People are advised to get out of the sea and leave coastal areas immediately when these are issued.

Image source, Getty Images

As we have just reported, several bullet train services in the northeast of Japan have been suspended due to the earthquake, according to transport operators.

A few lines serving the capital, Tokyo, are affected. These include the Tohoku Shinkansen line, the Yamagata Shinkansen line and the Akita Shinkansen.

Image source, Reuters

Japan’s Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara is giving an update and says residents should stay inland until tsunami warnings are lifted.

Around 100 households are without power, he says, and some bullet train services are currently on hold.

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The Japan Meteorological Agency is warning that earthquakes of a similar scale to today's 7.5-magnitude quake could strike over the next week.

Warnings such as these are standard procedure following a major earthquake.

Officials have warned people to keep watch for landslides or similar earthquakes later this week, and that an even bigger tsunami could still hit after the first wave.

Kurumi Mori
Tokyo correspondent

Image source, EPA

Statistically speaking, Japan gets an earthquake with a magnitude seven or above about every 16 months, so that’s just under once a year on average.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the country accounts for more than 10% of all earthquakes with a magnitude of six or higher that occur worldwide.

The most recent major quake was a magnitude 7.6 off Aomori prefecture in December 2025, but the deadliest modern event was the 2011 Tohoku earthquake which was magnitude 9.0, triggering a tsunami, killing more than 18,000 and causing a nuclear meltdown in Fukushima prefecture.

When the tsunami warnings were triggered then, many people didn’t think the tsunami would be so big and didn’t seek high enough ground.

Now, the government issues tsunami warnings and advisories and urges residents to flee the area as soon as possible.

There’s been more education about tsunami waves since 2011 about how even a 30cm wave can be life-threatening.

It has now been confirmed by the Japan Meteorological Agency that a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sanriku at 16:52 (08:52 BST) local time and had a depth of 10km (6.2 miles).

In its news conference, Japan's Meteorological Agency warns that a bigger tsunami may hit after the first wave.

Tsunami warnings in parts of Hokkaido and Iwate prefectures have been issued.

That's all from the briefing.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has just started a news conference.

Officials are warning people to evacuate to higher ground and keep watch for landslides or similar earthquakes later this week.

Stay with us, we’ll bring you more.

Image source, Getty Images

No abnormalities have been reported at the nuclear plants in the prefectures of Aomori and Miyagi, Japanese news site Kyodo reports.

Separately, the operator of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant says there are no abnormalities there, reports NHK.

Checks are ongoing at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which saw meltdowns in 2011 following a massive earthquake and tsunami along Japan's east coast.

Thousands of residents were evacuated from the area at the time, and it has taken years to deal with the radioactive contamination.