M 5.6 quake hits NE Japan, no injuries

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 on the Richter scale shook northeastern Japan on Thursday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. There were no immediate reports of casualties. No tsunami warning was issued for the 7:32 p.m. (1032 GMT) quake. The quake registered lower 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in the central part of Miyagi Prefecture, according to the agency. The agency defines an intensity of lower 5 as strong enough to make hanging objects swing violently and most unstable ornaments fall. The Japanese scale measures how much places were shaken on the surface while the Richter scale measures the energy of the quake itself. The focus of the temblor was off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, about 350 kilometers north of Tokyo, at a depth of about 50 kilometers. There were no reports about abnormalities at nuclear power plants in the region, according to the operator. Northeastern Japan was severely damaged on March 11 last year by a magnitude 9.0-quake and tsunami that left nearly 19, 000 people dead or missing.