A second more powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake has struck the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto, a day earlier a tremor hit the country and killed nine people.
The tremor hit at a depth of 10km (six miles) at 01:25 on Saturday (15:25 GMT on Friday) in Kyushu region.
Current reports are speculating at least three people died and hundreds were injured.
A tsunami warning was issued but was lifted some 50 minutes later.
Japan’s nuclear authority said the Sendai nuclear plant was not damaged.
According to Jonathan Amos, BBC science correspondent Japan is one of the most seismically active areas on Earth, accounting for about 20 per cent of global quakes of magnitude 6.0 or greater.
“Seismometers are recording some kind of event every five minutes, on average,” Amos reports on the BBC website.
