An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale jolted off the east coast of Honshu, Japan at 10:22 Tokyo Time (0122 GMT) on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reports the US Geological Survey as saying.     

The epicentre, with a depth of 9.70 km, was determined to be at 39.6 degrees north latitude and 143.1 degrees east longitude, about 535 km northeast of Tokyo.       

NONEThere are no immediate reports of casualties or tsunami alert.      

A record 262 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater were registered in the seven days following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake off northeastern Japan on March 11 (left), Kyodo News quoted the Japan Meteorological Agency as saying Friday.      

Meanwhile, there were three aftershocks of magnitude 7 or greater, including a magnitude 7.5 quake that occurred shortly afterwards, and 49 aftershocks of magnitude 6 or more, according to Japabn's Kyodo news agency.     

- Bernama