Among the injured is a person seriously injured on the island of Hokkaido, the northernmost of the archipelago, according to the Japanese Fire and Disaster Management Agency, which recommended the evacuation of 28,000 people.
Live footage shows fragments of broken glass scattered across roads or objects on store floors.
Around 2,700 homes were left without electricity in Aomori, of which three dozen remained without power late this morning, as winter sets in.
The JMA initially issued a tsunami warning, mentioning waves that could reach three meters and asking thousands of inhabitants in the region closest to the epicenter to take shelter.
The circulation of Shinkansen high-speed trains has been suspended in some areas while the condition of the roads is checked.
In turn, the company Tohoku Electric Power reported that no anomalies were detected in the two nuclear plants closest to the epicenter, Higashidori, in Aomori, and Onagawa, in the Miyagi region.
The region is still very aware of the consequences of the magnitude 9 earthquake in March 2011, which caused a tsunami, leaving around 18,500 people dead or missing.
The catastrophe also caused the meltdown of three of the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant, the worst disaster of its kind since the Chernobyl catastrophe in April 1986.
Japan is located at the junction of four tectonic plates, on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”. The country has one of the largest seismic activities in the world.