An earthquake of the magnitude 8.8 on Richter Scale rocked Japan on Friday, leading to buildings in capital Tokyo shaking in the impact and people rushing out to the streets. Local television stations are reported to have shown footage of tsunami damage in the northern part of the country, but there was no official confirmation of the same.

Japan's meteorological agency has reported that the quake struck at local time of 2.46 pm, some 80 miles off the country's east coast and at a depth of around eight kilometers at an original intensity of 7.9 which was later upgraded.

The agency has also mentioned the possibility of a tsunami following the undersea earthquake. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said top-level evacuation alerts for the entire Japanese coast, Russia and the Mariana Islands.

Further details are awaited.