Tokyo:
People began stocking up on food and preparing to spend the night in evacuation centres without electricity on Friday after a tsunami spawned by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded slammed Japan's eastern coast.
Others found themselves stranded in the centre of the capital Tokyo as the public transport system was shut down. The quake and tsunami have already killed hundreds of people and left many others homeless after it swept away boats, cars and homes.
The death toll was likely to continue climbing given the scale of the disaster.
The magnitude 8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0.
Dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometre) stretch of coastline were shaken by violent tremors that reached as far away as Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometres) from the epicentre.
Japanese broadcaster NHK reported more than four million buildings were without power in Tokyo and its suburbs.
The US Geological Survey said the 2:46 p.m. quake was a magnitude 8.9, the biggest earthquake to hit Japan since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s, and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world.
The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometres), about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.