Japan has been rattled by a 6.7 magnitude earthquake

JAPAN has been rattled by a magnitude-6.7 earthquake that hit the northeast of the country, the meteorological agency said.

The quake effected the areas hardest hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami disasters.

Japan's meteorological agency said the latest jolt hit about 50 kilometres off the east coast of Miyako, Iwate prefecture, at a depth of 20 kilometres in the Pacific.

The agency initially released a tsunami warning of a 20cm wave, but this was later revised.

Local authorities had issued evacuation orders to some 8,000 households in Iwate, news agency NHK said.

Shinkansen bullet train services were temporarily suspended, while there was no new damge to the Onagawa nuclear power plant in Miyagi, south of Iwate, which has been out of operation since the March 11 disaster, NHK added.

The northeast coast of Japan's main Honshu island was ravaged by a 9.0 magnitude quake and monster tsunami on March 11, which left more 23,000 people dead or missing.

The disasters also crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, triggering the world's worst atomic accident since Chernobyl in 1986 and forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to leave their homes.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology reported no immediate tsunami threat to Australian mainland, islands or territories from the earthquake.

The US Pacific Tsunami warning centre said that it did not expect a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries in the quake.