The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center says the earthquake struck at 1:25 p.m. HST off the east coast of Kamchatka.

According to Japan's meteorological agency, the tsunami has started to hit parts of Japan, beginning in Hokkaido.

The first tsunami wave hit the coastal area of Severo-Kurilsk, the main settlement on Russia’s Kuril Islands in the Pacific, according to the local governor Valery Limarenko.