By NBC News staff and wire reportsUpdated at 5:40 a.m. ET: Tsunami waves up to 3 feet high hit the coast of Japan Friday, after a strong earthquake in the sea that shook buildings 300 miles away in Tokyo.
Follow @NBCNewsWorld (https://twitter.com/NBCNewsWorld) The temblor was registered at a magnitude of 7.3 and struck at 5:18 p.m. local time (3:18 a.m. ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/at00menj2m).
The earthquake hit in the same area as the devastating quake and tsunami in March last year that killed nearly 20,000 people and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.
Friday's quake struck about 200 miles southeast of Kamaishi, the USGS said. The epicenter was 6.2 miles beneath the seabed, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/).
NBCNews