A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off Iwate Prefecture (a coastal region in northern Honshu, Japan's main island) on Monday afternoon, prompting Japan's Meteorological Agency to issue a tsunami warning for waves of up to three metres and urge residents to move immediately to higher ground. Authorities issued evacuation orders to nearly 177,000 people across five prefectures including Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima, while Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi confirmed a crisis management team had been activated and said the government was assessing casualties and damage. The earthquake comes as Japan — which sits atop four tectonic plates along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' and accounts for roughly 18% of the world's seismic activity — remains on heightened alert following a series of major tremors in recent years, including a deadly 2011 quake and tsunami that killed around 18,500 people.