Tokyo,<\/p>\n
Hours after a massive volcanic eruption near Tonga, Tsunami reached Japan late Saturday and waves as high as three meters were possible, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.<\/p>\n
A 1.2 meter (about four feet) tsunami reached the remote southern island of Amami Oshima around 11:55pm (1455 GMT) Saturday before other areas along Japan’s Pacific coast observed slighter tsunami, agency added.<\/p>\n
The eastern shores of northernmost Hokkaido Island as well as southwestern regions of Kochi and Wakayama also saw tsunami as high as 0.9 meters shortly after midnight, the agency said.<\/p>\n
Japan National broadcaster switched to special programming and aired live footage from ports of affected regions and calling to evacuate the area. The footage showed no clear signs of abnormality.<\/p>\n
A weather agency official told in a midnight news conference that radars had detected a tidal change higher than one meter after 11pm.<\/p>\n
The agency didn’t immediately classify it as tsunami. However, it decided to activate the public tsunami warning systems to urge the evacuation of Amami residents.<\/p>\n
“We don’t know at this point whether this is tsunami, but a strong tidal change has been observed, so we’re urging residents to respond,” the official told the press conference.<\/p>\n\n