Japan assesses damage morning after powerful quake

TOKYO: Households remained without power and companies worked to assess the damage the morning after a powerful quake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit the northeast coast of Japan on Wednesday.

Some 36,400 households in areas hard-hit by the tremor and serviced by Tohoku Electric Company were still without power on Thursday morning. The company said it expected most of the power to return on Thursday, but could not rule out delays to a return to normality in other areas.

Two were confirmed dead and over one hundred people are injured, public broadcaster NHK said. Authorities cancelled an earlier tsunami warning.

Manufacturers were also trying to gauge the damage of the quake, which hit just before midnight off the coast of Fukushima prefecture at a depth of 60 km (37 miles).

Renesas Electronics Corp 6723.T, the world's biggest maker of automotive microcontroller chips, said it was checking for quake damage at three plants in Japan.