An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.2 shook Niigata Prefecture on Thursday morning, causing a bullet train line and a nuclear power plant to temporarily halt operations. Only minor injuries were reported.
The quake is believed to be an aftershock related to the devastating magnitude 6.8 earthquake and two other strong quakes that hit the area on the evening of Oct. 23, the Meteorological Agency said. Strong aftershocks have been rattling the area ever since.
The quake, which struck at 8:57 a.m., registered upper-5 on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 in the towns of Koshiji and Mishima. Its focus was about 20 km underneath the Chuetsu region in central Niigata Prefecture, the agency said.