The Central Disaster Prevention Council has reworked its potential damage estimate for a major quake that could directly strike the Tokyo area, in light of the March 2011 magnitude 9 temblor that spawned the devastating tsunami off Tohoku.

In Thursday's estimate, the council's focus was on a magnitude 7-class event and did not squarely address the possibility of a megaquake of magnitude 9 or greater striking.

A critic said the panel's "underestimated" report may have been motivated by political considerations to avoid stirring anxiety ahead of the Olympics games Tokyo is hosting in 2020.