On Monday, a triple quake with a magnitude from 5.7 to 7.6 struck the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture shortly after 4 p.m. local time (7:00 GMT), collapsing buildings and triggering a series of aftershocks.
The NHK broadcaster reported that 36 people were hospitalized in the city of Nanao. In addition, at least 18 people were injured in neighboring Toyama Prefecture, with three of them being in serious condition, while 20 people received injuries in Niigata Prefecture, six people in Fukui Prefecture and one person in Gifu Prefecture, the media reported.
It has been reported that the earthquake was the largest in the Noto peninsula since 1885, when the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) started keeping records.
A major fire has broken out in the Japanese city of Wajima in the Ishikawa prefecture, with videos of the fire still raging more than 12 hours after the earthquake being shown in Japanese media news programs.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said during a meeting of the earthquake response headquarters that units of the self-defense forces had already been sent to the affected region, the report said.