CHITA: A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck central Japan at 1.04am on Sunday, injuring 22 people and damaging buildings, businesses and schools across the region.
The strongest shaking, measuring upper 5 on Japan's seismic intensity scale, was recorded in Chita, Aichi Prefecture.
Nineteen people were injured in Aichi Prefecture and three in Shizuoka Prefecture, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the earthquake's hypocentre was 41km beneath western Shizuoka Prefecture.
Although the epicentre was within the projected area of a Nankai Trough earthquake, the tremor occurred within the oceanic plate subducting beneath the continental plate, rather than along the anticipated plate boundary.
At a press conference in the early hours of Sunday, the agency said: "We cannot say it is unrelated [to the Nankai Trough earthquake] for sure, but there is no need for excessive concern."
According to the agency, this was the first time an earthquake registering upper 5 or stronger had struck Aichi Prefecture since March 1997.
The agency urged residents to remain vigilant for earthquakes of similar strength over the following week.
At the Audi Toyohashi car dealership in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, most of the building's windows were shattered, while several new cars on display were damaged.
Safety inspections and repairs are expected to take at least a week, according to the dealership.
"It was a huge shock," said a representative of Sala Cars Japan, which operates the dealership.
"But since the earthquake struck in the middle of the night, there were no employees, customers or passers-by, and no one was injured. That is the silver lining."
At a Seibunkan bookstore in Toyota, books fell from shelves and windows were shattered. The shop was operating without staff at the time of the earthquake and was subsequently closed.
"There's no room to walk in the aisles," said a 49-year-old male employee who had rushed to the shop.
"The shaking was quite violent, so it can't be helped."
At an elementary school in Higashiura, a town adjacent to Chita, where upper 5 shaking was recorded, a glass block measuring approximately 2.8 metres high, 5 metres wide and 10 centimetres thick fell from the second-floor home economics classroom into the hall below.
The school was closed on Monday to allow safety inspections to be carried out.
