Japan earthquake a 6.7, tsunami alert issued

April 20, 2007

Tokyo, Japan - An earthquake with preliminary magnitude 6.7 struck southwestern Japan and a tsunami alert was issued Friday.

An earthquake with preliminary magnitude 6.7 struck and a tsunami alert was issued Friday for southwestern Japan.

According to the Meteorological Agency, the focus of the tremor was 25 miles below the seabed near the diving resort island of Miyakojima, 1,200 miles southwest of Tokyo, the agency said.

The Meteorological Agency forecast that waves of around 20 inches would hit Miyako Island.

The agency said it was an aftershock to an early quake registering 6.2 on the Richter scale in the same area about an hour earlier. There were no immediate reports of damage of casualties following the two quakes.

Japan lies at the junction of four tectonic plates and experiences some 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes.

In 1995, a 7.3-magnitude quake in the western city of Kobe killed more than 6,400 people.