VIDEO:Japan Quake Death Toll Rises ,Search Goes On

About 50 people were cut off from outside help in remote hamlets in Miyagi.

The death toll in a powerful earthquake that hit northern Japan at the weekend rose to 10 on Monday as troops and rescue workers searched for survivors in the remote, mountainous area worst hit by the tremor.

A fourth body was pulled from the ruins of an inn in the northern prefecture of Miyagi, a local official said. The building was crushed in a massive mudslide triggered by the 7.2 magnitude quake, which struck on Saturday morning.

Twelve people remain missing, including three at the inn, and at least 231 people have been injured, according to Tokyo's fire and disaster agency.

More than 200 people are staying in shelters and water is being trucked into the hardest hit areas, where about 3,500 households are without water and about 300 households without electricity, local government officials said.

About 50 people were cut off from outside help in remote hamlets in Miyagi.

"I'm worried about how long this is going to continue, and I'm worried about my house," a woman in a quake shelter told TV Asahi.

Landslides and buckled bridges scarred the area, but casualties have been limited because the population is sparse and damage to buildings was limited due to strict construction regulations.

Japan is one of the word's most seismically active areas. The country accounts about for 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda urged officials to get essential services working quickly.

"I want basic services to be restored as soon as possible so that the lives of those who went through the quake can be stabilised," Kyodo news agency quoted him as telling a cabinet meeting on Monday.