California governor Jerry Brown proclaimed an annual "tsunami preparedness week" on Tuesday, just over a year after Japan was devastated by a killer earthquake and tidal wave.

The Golden State has been hit by a number of tsunamis over the decades, including last year's in Japan on March 11, which produced waves on the US West Coast, notably hitting a port in northern California.

"Over the past two hundred years, the coast of California has experienced at least two dozen tsunamis, 15 of which have damaged our coastal communities," said Brown, declaring March 25-31 as this year's tsunami-preparing week.

"Most recently, on March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9.0 quake near Honshu, Japan, generated a tsunami that claimed at least one life and tens of millions of dollars in property on the California coast."

He said damage was not great thanks to the California Emergency Management Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, and local authorities throughout the state.

He urged "all Californians to learn more about this threat and take steps, as appropriate, to secure their lives and property against future tsunamis," he added.

The Japanese tsunami last year sent waves across the Pacific, mostly causing harmless swells, but triggering chaos in Crescent City in northern California, where boats were crushed in the harbor.

Last week a fishing boat lost in the massive Japanese tsunami turned up off Canada's west coast. The 65-meter (210-foot) vessel was spotted Tuesday by a Canadian Forces aircraft on a routine surveillance patrol.

In Japan on Tuesday, a 6.0-magnitude quake struck the northeastern part of the country, the US Geological Survey said, but Japanese authorities noted that no tsunami warning was issued.

Mark Ghilarducci of the California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA), said everyone needed to work together "to reduce the potentially catastrophic impacts of tsunamis and other emergencies that threaten California.

"The massive wave surges generated by last year's... earthquake and tsunami is a sobering reminder that even disasters thousands of miles away can affect dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of lives here in California," he added.