Updated 6:16pm — A powerful earthquake has this evening rocked Japan’s north eastern coastline – the same region hit by the deadly tsunami in March.

Reporter Steve Hermen from Voice of America says the quake was powerful and the government news channel had live coverage as a tsunami watch watch was issued.  A tsunami watch means a tsunami of less than half a metre is possible. 

The watch was cancelled a short time ago.

“NHK has interrupted programming (the popular nat’l HS baseball tournament) for continual coverage of latest quake & tsunami alert” he tweeted around 6pm NZT. 

The Japanese Meteorological Agency says the quake measureed 6.8 and was 20kms deep, east of Sendai.

The USGS says it was 6.5 on the Richter Scale and 39kms deep.

– WeatherWatch.co.nz