At least three people have been killed in an earthquake in northern Japan.
Several others have been trapped in a hot spring resort hit by a landslide after the quake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale.
The quake was centred in Iwate, a sparsely populated rural area around 300km north of Tokyo, at 8.43am local time (0.43am Irish time).
Dozens of aftershocks also jolted the area.
One of those killed was caught in a landslide. A second was killed as he ran out of a building and was run over by a car. The third victim was killed at a dam construction site hit by falling rocks.
At least four people have been buried in a landslide at a hot spring resort in Kurihara city in hard-hit Miyagi prefecture.
Three more are missing at a work site after another landslide in Kurihara, Kyodo news agency said, with more than 100 people injured.
And a small amount of radioactive water leaked at a storage facility at a nuclear power plant, after the quake.
Tokyo Electric Power Co said that 14.8 litres of water came out of a pool in which radioactive equipment is stored at the Fukushima Number Two Reactor in northern Fukushima prefecture.
However, a company spokesperson said the radiation level of the water is far below the level that could potentially affect the environment. The reactor itself is still in operation.
Japan endures 20% of the world's major earthquakes but has been trying to step up its reliance on nuclear power as Asia's largest economy has virtually no natural energy resources.
Nuclear power currently accounts for roughly 33% of Japan's energy needs, the second highest ratio among the Group of Eight major economies after France.
