By the Associated Press
TOKYO — An earthquake Friday shook parts of a northern Japanese island where a stronger temblor last month set off deadly landslides and damaged a power plant.
No injuries or damage has been reported from the latest earthquake on Hokkaido island near the town of Atsuma. The Japan Meteorological Agency measured the quake at magnitude 5.2, revising from an earlier measurement of 5.3.
But it scared many people including residents in Atsuma, where the magnitude 6.7 earthquake a month ago caused landslides and killed more than 40 people. That quake also damaged a major power plant in the town, blacking out all of the island's nearly 3 million households and forcing essential services such as hospitals and traffic lights to use generators or other backups.
The new quake was an aftershock to the Sept. 6 temblor, the agency said, cautioning residents that more shaking could occur at any time.
Footage on NHK national television showed employees at the Atsuma town hall all standing up and watching a television monitor, as an emergency earthquake alarm sounded.
Hokkaido Electric Power Co. said all of its power plants were intact after the Friday quake, including the Tomato-Atsuma plant that has been repaired from the damage caused in the earlier quake. There was no abnormality at the island's only nuclear power plant at Tomari, which briefly had to rely on generators last month, reminding people of the Fukushima disaster following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.