OAN Staff Cory Hawkins and Brooke Mallory
3:00 PM – Monday, December 8, 2025
A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the Pacific Ocean approximately 45–50 miles east-northeast of Misawa, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, at around 11:15 p.m. local time on Monday.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) also confirmed a smaller magnitude 5.5 aftershock roughly 15 minutes after the initial quake.
According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, approximately 90,000 Japanese residents were urged to evacuate to designated shelters.
Initially, the quake strongly shook northern Honshu and parts of Hokkaido, triggering tsunami warnings along the northeastern Pacific coast. The Japanese Meteorological Agency had also issued an alert for potential tsunami surges of up to ten feet in some areas, with Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara advising residents to head to higher ground or take shelter inside buildings until the alert was lifted.
Nonetheless, small tsunami waves of only up to 70 cm (2 feet, 3.6 inches) were observed, according to reports, and the warnings were later lifted with no reports of major damage or fatalities.
Despite no fatalities being reported from quake, several locals reported being injured at a hotel in the city of Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, officials added. In nearby Tohoku, a driver was also injured when his vehicle plunged into a sinkhole caused by the quake, and reports of multiple fires breaking out were announced later as well.
Nuclear power plants in the affected region, including those in Fukushima and Aomori prefectures, conducted immediate safety inspections after the tremors subsided.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced that the government has established an emergency response task force to assess the full extent of the damage and coordinate relief efforts. Japan’s high speed railway lines announced that the service was suspended in the affected areas due to the tremors.
Japan is said to be located in the “Ring of Fire,” where the Pacific Plate interacts with several others, such as the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate, causing Japan to report around 1,500 earthquakes per year — roughly 18% of the world’s seismic activity.
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