A 5.7-magnitude earthquake strikes off Japan's Iwate Prefecture

TOKYO: An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.7 struck off Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan on Wednesday (Dec 31), the country's weather agency said.

The temblor occurred at 11:27 p.m. local time off Iwate's eastern coast at a depth of about 30 kilometres, measuring 4 on Japan's seismic scale of 7 in Iwate's Morioka City, said the Japan Meteorological Agency.