TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Japan issued an evacuation advisory for the coastal areas of the southern prefecture of Okinawa after a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami warning.

Tsunami waves of up to 3 metres were expected to reach large areas of Japan's southwestern coast, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The warning came after a very shallow earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 struck in the ocean near Taiwan.

A 30 cm tsunami reached Yonaguni Island at 9:18 a.m. (0018 GMT), JMA said.

Japan was rocked by its deadliest quake in eight years on New Year's Day when a 7.6 magnitude temblor struck in Ishikawa prefecture, on the western coast. More than 230 people died in the quake that left 44,000 homes fully or partially destroyed.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. Japan accounts for about one-fifth of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami. Those events triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chornobyl a quarter of a century earlier.

REUTERS

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