Tokyo was hit by its second quake in three days on Tuesday, giving the capital’s skyscrapers a shake but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
The 4.8 magnitude jolt struck Tokyo and areas of eastern Japan at 12:57 pm (0357 GMT), the US Geological Survey said, after a 5.0 magnitude earthquake shook the capital the other day.
The temblor’s epicentre had a relatively shallow depth of about 23 kilometres (14 miles) in Chiba, east of Tokyo, the USGS said.
There was no threat of a tsunami.
Japan sits at the junction of four tectonic plates and experiences a number of relatively violent quakes every year, but rigid building codes and strict enforcement mean even powerful tremors frequently do little damage.
A massive undersea quake that hit in March 2011 sent a tsunami barrelling into Japan’s northeast coast, leaving more than 18,000 people dead or missing, and sending three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
