TOKYO, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- A government panel in Japan said that an earthquake the size of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake is likely to strike off the coast of the northernmost prefecture Hokkaido within the next 30 years.

The government's earthquake research panel said in a report that there is a 7-40 percent chance that an earthquake with a magnitude exceeding 8.8 would occur in the next 30 years in the Pacific off the eastern coast of Hokkaido.

The panel said massivequakes have stricken off the eastern coast of Hokkaido every 340 to 380 years, and while the most recent one is believed to have occurred about 400 years ago, the possibility is high that another large earthquake is "impending."

Japan's science and technology minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told a news conference Tuesday that it is necessary to make disaster-prevention preparations based on "the largest possible earthquake predicted."

"We hope this report will help local governments to make necessary preparations and raise people's awareness of the risk of disasters," he said.

He added the government will make damage projections and review disaster prevention measures based on the predictions as soon as possible.