Tokyo rocked by strong quake, reviving fears of 'The Big One'

The quake was the biggest since a tremor of equal magnitude hit the Kanto region centring on Tokyo in June 2000, but there were no reports of major damage or casualties.

It struck at 7:22 am (2222 GMT Sunday), with the focus located 52km underground in the northeastern part of Chiba prefecture, some 100km east of Tokyo.

There was no danger of the quake causing tsunami waves, the meteorological agency said.

The quake occurred in a geological hotbed of quakes, where powerful earthquakes registering 6.0 on the Richter scale or greater have taken place repeatedly, said Masahiro Yamamoto, monitoring chief of earthquakes and tsunamis at the agency.

But a major aftershock was unlikely, he said.