A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 rattled the Kanto region Monday morning, the Meteorological Agency and police said.

No tsunami warning was issued for the 7:22 a.m. quake, which registered an intensity of upper 5 on the Japanese seismic scale to 7 in southern Ibaraki and northeastern Chiba prefectures. No casualties were reported.

It was the first time the inland Kanto region has been struck by a quake with an intensity of upper 5 or stronger since the current intensity scale was introduced in 1996.