A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 has hit the coast of Japan's Fukushima prefecture in the centre of the country today, Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The quake struck at at 11:30 pm local time, around an hour-and-a-half ago, with Japanese authorities describing it as a 'strong shake'.

It hit close to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, an earthquake initiated a tsunami there in 2011 that sparked a nuclear disaster.

So far no major damage or injuries have been reported, and no tsunami warning has been issued.

The epicenter struck at a latitude of 37.0 degrees north and a longitude of 141.2 degrees east and at depth of 50 km on Honshu, Japan's main island.

One Twitter user said he felt a 'long rattling in Yokohama' - which is over 300 km away from the Fukushima Prefecture.

In this aerial image, Fukushima Daiichi Nucler Power Plant is seen after an 9.0 magnitude strong earthquake struck on March 11, 2011

Police officers wearing protective suits search for victims of an earthquake and a tsunami in Fukushima Prefecture in 2011

Authorities said that aftershocks are likely to continue and urged people to be careful.

One Twitter user said they felt it as far away as the country's capital: 'It was an earthquake? I felt that too?? I’m staying in Tokyo on a holiday and I just felt my whole Airbnb shake??'

The prefecture has a population of nearly two million people and includes large cities such as it's capital of the same name that has a population of 280,000 people.

Other large cities in the region include Aizuwakamatsu, Iwaki and Kōriyama.

Honshu, Japan's main island, is home to the prefecture and has a population of 104,000,000, including Tokyo.