A tsunami advisory was also issued for parts of Alaska and the entire West Coast after a powerful earthquake off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.

Japan's weather office on Thursday lifted a tsunami advisory imposed a day earlier after Russia's Far East was rocked by one of the strongest earthquakes on record.The beaching of four sperm whales on a beach in Japan was initially blamed on the earthquake but officials said the animals had washed up a day earlier.

People flocked to evacuation centers in affected areas of Japan, with memories fresh of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused reactor meltdowns at