Evacuees on top of a building in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan as tsunami warnings are issued on Wednesday. —KYODO/VNA Photo

TOKYO — The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has downgraded all tsunami warnings to tsunami advisories on Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday morning, a powerful earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.7 struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, prompting the JMA to issue tsunami warnings along the Pacific coastlines of 13 prefectures, from Hokkaido to Wakayama.

Tsunami advisories were issued for a further 17 prefectures.

According to the agency, a 1.3-metre tsunami was observed at Kuji Port in Iwate Prefecture at 1.52pm (local time).

An 80cm tsunami was confirmed at Tokyo’s Hachijojima Island at 2.37pm. Another was recorded at Nemuro, Hokkaido, at 2.57pm.

According to a Yomiuri Shimbun tally, evacuation directives had been issued to 2.77 million people across at least 220 municipalities in 21 prefectures, primarily along the Pacific coast from the northern prefecture of Hokkaido to the southern prefecture of Okinawa, as of noon. — THE JAPAN NEWS/ANN