An earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 hit the Ogasawara Islands south of Tokyo on Sunday afternoon, jolting large areas in eastern and northeastern Japan, the Meteorological Agency said.
The agency did not issue a tsunami warning and no damage or injuries were immediately reported.
The 4:28 p.m. quake measured 4 on the 7-point Japanese intensity scale on the Pacific chain's Chichijima, some 1,000 km south of Tokyo. The island has a population of nearly 2,000.
The quake measured 3 on the Japanese scale in parts of Chiba, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, Tochigi and Yamagata prefectures, as well as on Hachijo Island in the Izu Island chain, which lies north of the Ogasawara chain.
The quake was felt as a 2 on the Japanese scale in downtown Tokyo.
The focus of the temblor was about 430 km under the sea off the uninhabited isle of Torishima Island, about 600 km south of Tokyo, the agency said.
Torishima is the southernmost of Izu Islands, which have been hit by a series of quakes triggered by magma activity in the past few months.