Dozens killed as biggest quake strikes N.E. Japan, triggers tsunami | The Japan Times Online

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 struck a wide area of northeastern and eastern Japan including Tokyo on Friday, triggering a massive tsunami that swept away houses and cars in Miyagi Prefecture and killing at least 32 people.

The 2:46 p.m. earthquake is the strongest ever to have been observed in the quake-prone archipelago by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the governmental agency said, with its magnitude surpassing the 7.9 registered in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in Tokyo and its vicinity, which killed more than 100,000 people