Japan issues false earthquake warning and cancels it

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued an emergency earthquake warning on Friday afternoon, urging people from Hokkaido in the north to the Tokai region in central Japan to brace for strong shaking as a massive temblor occurred in the Kuril Islands.

But no strong shaking was actually observed, and the agency later canceled the warning, which was issued at 12:40 p.m. local time.

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake did strike near the Kamchatka Peninsula at 12:38 p.m., and officials said the agency’s system may have mistakenly recognized it as a massive earthquake for some reason, leading to the issuance of the emergency warning.

The maximum seismic intensity actually observed was 1 on Japan's scale of up to 7.

The agency is investigating the circumstances that led to the false alert. — Nippon Television Network Corp./Reuters/VBL, GMA News