Tsumani Alert in Two Countries
From correspondents in Singapore
INDONESIAN authorities have issued a tsunami alert after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the country's east.
And in Japan, the Meteorological Agency has warned of tsunami seismic waves after a strong quake of 7.0 magnitude shook the north of the country.
The earthquake occurred at 9.21am (10.21am AEST), with the epicentre 20km under the sea off Hokkaido island's Tokachi region, some 700km north of Tokyo, the agency said.
The agency warned that tsunami waves as high as 50cm could hit the eastern coast of Hokkaido as well as Pacific shores of the main island of Honshu.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Japan is hit by 20 per cent of the world's powerful earthquakes.
The Indonesian quake happened at a depth of 10km at 10am AEST, 122km northwest of Ternate city in North Maluku province, the meteorology and geophysics bureau said.
National TV stations broke into their programming to relay the alerts, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", the edge of a tectonic plate prone to seismic upheaval.
A major earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck in December 2004, leaving more than 170,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Aceh province and half a million people homeless.
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