March 25 (Bloomberg) -- An earthquake of magnitude 6.7 shook central Japan, including Ishikawa Prefecture, the U.S. Geological Service said. It killed one person and injured at least 162.

A 52-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a falling stone lantern in her garden, the Ishikawa police said today. Twelve people were seriously hurt in Ishikawa and four neighboring prefectures, and 349 houses were damaged, including 45 homes that had collapsed, as of 4 p.m. local time, Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.

The quake was felt 360 kilometers (225 miles) away in Tokyo. It was centered about 3 miles beneath the seabed offshore of Ishikawa Prefecture's Noto peninsula, the USGS reported. The temblor registered in the upper 6 range on Japan's intensity scale.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered government agencies to confirm injuries and damages after the quake caused landslides, broke highway pavement and toppled buildings, Yasuhisa Shiozaki, chief government spokesman, said. Five helicopters and 346 firefighters and medical staff were dispatched to the site as of 4 p.m.

The agency lifted its tsunami advisory for coastal areas of Ishikawa at 11:30 a.m. A tsunami about 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) high came ashore around at 10:12 a.m., the agency said.

Aftershocks

Aftershocks are possible tomorrow, Takeshi Hachimine, a Japanese Meteorological Agency official, said at a briefing in Tokyo. Today's temblor was followed by about 90 aftershocks as of 4 p.m., the agency said.

The initial quake was the strongest recorded in Ishikawa since the agency began keeping records in 1926, Takashi Nakamura, agency spokesman, said.

More than 1,100 people were evacuated in Ishikawa, the disaster agency said. Hokuriku Electric Power Co., which supplies electricity to the region, said on its Web site about 480 houses had power outages.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co., which operate nuclear power plants in areas near the center of the quake, said facilities were operating normally. Hokuriku Electric said on its Web site that its nuclear power plants had no leaks of radiation.

All Nippon Airways Co. suspended flights today between Tokyo's Haneda airport and Noto airport in Ishikawa, according to Hidemi Saito, operations director for the carrier at the Haneda airport.

West Japan Railway Co. suspended some services in the area for inspection, the company said on its Web site. East Japan Railway Co.'s high-speed Joetsu Shinkansen between Tokyo and Niigata resumed operations at 12:25 p.m. after track inspections, said Shinichi Harada, company spokesman.

NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile phone operator, said it resumed regular operations at 2:47 p.m. in the region around Ishikawa.

Softbank Corp., Japan's third-largest mobile phone operator, resumed service around 3 p.m. after a suspension of voice communication services in some cities, spokesman Katsuhide Furuya said.

There were no reports of damages at Toshiba Corp.'s chip- making factory and liquid-crystal display plants, spokesman Keisuke Omori said.

Japan, one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, is located in a zone where the Eurasian, Pacific, Philippine and North American tectonic plates meet and occasionally shift, causing quakes. Quakes of magnitude 5 and more can cause considerable damage.

To contact the reporters on this story: Naoko Fujimura in Tokyo at nfujimura@bloomberg.netTetsuya Komatsu in Tokyo at tekomatsu@gbloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 25, 2007 05:06 EDT