A powerful earthquake that jolted central Japan late Tuesday injured at least eight people in Shizuoka Prefecture, the hardest-hit area, police and rescue officials said Wednesday.
Government seismologists said the same day that the quake, the most powerful to hit Shizuoka city since 1935, was not a prelude to the major temblor experts have forecast for the Tokai area, which neighbors the Kanto region.
Nobuo Hamada, head of the Earthquake Prediction Information Division of the Meteorological Agency, said there were no clear crustal movements that would lead to a major earthquake in the Tokai region.