The degree and extent of damage caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunami were enormous, with most of the damage being caused by the tsunami. Video footage of the towns that were worst affected shows little more than piles of rubble, with almost no parts of any structures left standing. Estimates of the cost of the damage range well into the tens of billions of
US dollars; before-and-after
satellite photographs of devastated regions show immense damage. Although Japan has invested the equivalent of billions of dollars on anti-tsunami seawalls which line at least 40% of its coastline and stand up to high, the tsunami simply washed over the top of some seawalls, collapsing some in the process. Japan's
National Police Agency said on 3 April 2011, that 45,700 buildings were destroyed and 144,300 were damaged by the quake and tsunami. The damaged buildings included 29,500 structures in Miyagi Prefecture, 12,500 in Iwate Prefecture and 2,400 in Fukushima Prefecture. Three hundred hospitals with 20 beds or more in Tōhoku were damaged by the disaster, with 11 being completely destroyed. The earthquake and tsunami created an estimated 24–25 million of rubble and debris in Japan. A report by the National Police Agency of Japan on 10 September 2018 listed 121,778 buildings as "total collapsed", with a further 280,926 buildings "half collapsed", and another 699,180 buildings "partially damaged". The earthquake and tsunami also caused extensive and severe structural damage in north-eastern Japan, including heavy damage to roads and railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water. An estimated 230,000 automobiles and trucks were damaged or destroyed in the disaster. As of the end of May 2011, residents of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures had requested the deregistration of 15,000 vehicles, meaning that the owners of those vehicles were writing them off as unrepairable or unsalvageable.
Weather conditions , 16 March. Snow fell across several areas where the tsunami struck, further worsening the conditions and hampering rescue efforts. Low temperature and
snowfall were major concerns after the earthquake. Snow arrived minutes before or after the tsunami, depending on locations. In
Ishinomaki, the city which suffered the most deaths, and intermittently in the coming weeks. Photos of city ruins covered with snow were featured in various photo albums in international media, including
NASA.
Waste The tsunami produced huge amounts of debris: estimates of 5 million tonnes of waste were reported by the
Japanese Ministry of the Environment. Some of this waste, mostly plastic and
styrofoam, washed up on the coasts of Canada and the United States in late 2011. Along the west coast of the United States, this increased the amount of litter by a factor of ten and may have transported
alien species.
Ports 's port. All of Japan's ports were briefly shut down after the earthquake, though the ones in Tokyo and southwards soon re-opened. Fifteen ports were located in the disaster zone. The north eastern ports of Hachinohe, Sendai, Ishinomaki and Onahama were destroyed, while the
Port of Chiba (which serves the hydrocarbon industry) and Japan's ninth-largest container port at
Kashima were also affected, though less severely. The ports at Hitachinaka, Hitachi, Soma, Shiogama, Kesennuma, Ofunato, Kamashi and Miyako were also damaged and closed to ships. All 15 ports reopened to limited ship traffic by 29 March 2011. A total of 319 fishing ports, about 10% of Japan's fishing ports, were damaged in the disaster. Most were restored to operating condition by 18 April 2012. The
Port of Tokyo suffered slight damage; the effects of the quake included visible smoke rising from a building in the port with parts of the port areas being flooded, including
soil liquefaction in
Tokyo Disneyland's parking lot.
Dams and water problems The
Fujinuma irrigation dam in
Sukagawa ruptured, causing flooding and the washing away of five homes. Eight people were missing and four bodies were discovered by the morning. Reportedly, some locals had attempted to repair leaks in the dam before it completely
failed. On 12 March 252 dams were inspected and it was discovered that six
embankment dams had shallow cracks on their crests. The reservoir at one concrete
gravity dam suffered a small non-serious
slope failure. All damaged dams are functioning with no problems. Four dams within the quake area were unreachable. In the immediate aftermath of the calamity, at least 1.5 million households were reported to have lost access to water supplies. By 21 March 2011, this number fell to 1.04 million. Several nuclear and conventional power plants went offline, reducing the
Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) total capacity by 21 GW.
Rolling blackouts began on 14 March due to power shortages caused by the earthquake. TEPCO, which normally provides approximately 40
GW of electricity, announced that it could only provide about 30 GW, because 40% of the electricity used in the greater Tokyo area was supplied by reactors in the
Niigata and
Fukushima prefectures. The reactors at the
Fukushima Daiichi and
Fukushima Dai-ni plants were automatically taken offline when the first earthquake occurred and sustained major damage from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Rolling blackouts of approximately three hours were experienced throughout April and May while TEPCO scrambled to find a temporary power solution. The blackouts affected Tokyo,
Kanagawa, Eastern
Shizuoka,
Yamanashi,
Chiba,
Ibaraki,
Saitama,
Tochigi, and
Gunma prefectures. Voluntary reductions in electricity use by consumers in the Kanto area helped reduce the predicted frequency and duration of the blackouts. By 21 March 2011, the number of households in the north without electricity fell to 242,927. and severed power lines in
Minamisōma, Fukushima Tōhoku Electric Power was not able to provide the Kanto region with additional power because TEP's power plants were also damaged in the earthquake.
Kansai Electric Power Company (Kepco) could not share electricity, because its system operated at 60 hertz, whereas TEPCO and TEP operate their systems at 50 hertz; the disparity is due to early industrial and infrastructure development in the 1880s that left Japan without a unified national
power grid. Two substations, one in Shizuoka Prefecture and one in Nagano Prefecture, were able to convert between frequencies and transfer electricity from Kansai to Kanto and Tōhoku, but their capacity was limited to 1 GW. With damage to so many power plants, it was feared it might be years before a long-term solution could be found. To help alleviate the shortage, three steel manufacturers in the Kanto region contributed electricity produced by their in-house conventional power stations to TEPCO for distribution to the general public.
Sumitomo Metal Industries could produce up to 500 MW,
JFE Steel 400 MW, and
Nippon Steel 500 MW of electric power. Auto and auto parts makers in Kanto and Tōhoku agreed in May 2011 to operate their factories on Saturdays and Sundays and close on Thursdays and Fridays to help alleviate electricity shortages during the summer of 2011. The public and other companies were also encouraged to conserve electricity in the 2011 summer months (
Setsuden). The expected electricity crisis in 2011 summer was successfully prevented thanks to all the
setsuden measures. Peak electricity consumption recorded by TEPCO during the period was 49.22GW, which is 10.77GW (18%) lower than the peak consumption in the previous year. Overall electricity consumption during July and August was also 14% less than in the previous year. The peak electricity consumption within TEP's area was 12.46GW during the 2011 summer, 3.11GW (20%) less than the peak consumption in the previous year, and the overall consumption have been reduced by 11% in July with 17% in August compared to previous year. The Japanese government continued to ask the public to conserve electricity until 2016, when it is predicted that the supply will be sufficient to meet demand, thanks to the deepening of the mindset to conserve electricity among corporate and general public, addition of new electricity providers due to the
electricity liberalization policy, increased output from renewable energy as well as fossil fuel power stations, as well as sharing of electricity between different electricity companies.
Oil, gas and coal refinery A It was extinguished after ten days, injuring six people, and destroying storage tanks. Other refineries halted production due to safety checks and power loss. In Sendai, a refinery owned by the largest refiner in Japan,
JX Nippon Oil & Energy, was also set ablaze by the quake. Workers were evacuated, but tsunami warnings hindered efforts to extinguish the fire until 14 March, when officials planned to do so. The city-owned plant for importing
liquefied natural gas in Sendai was severely damaged, and supplies were halted for at least a month. In addition to refining and storage, several power plants were damaged. These include Sendai #4, New-Sendai #1 and #2, Haranomachi #1 and #2, Hirono #2 and #4 and Hitachinaka #1.
Nuclear power plants The
Fukushima Daiichi,
Fukushima Daini,
Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and
Tōkai nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were
automatically shut down following the earthquake.
Higashidōri, also on the northeast coast, was already shut down for a periodic inspection. Cooling is needed to remove
decay heat after a
Generation II reactor has been shut down, and to maintain spent fuel pools. The backup cooling process is powered by emergency diesel generators at the plants and at
Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant. At Fukushima Daiichi and Daini, tsunami waves overtopped seawalls and destroyed diesel backup power systems, leading to severe problems at Fukushima Daiichi, including three large explosions and radioactive leakage. Subsequent analysis found that many Japanese nuclear plants, including Fukushima Daiichi, were not adequately protected against tsunamis. Over 200,000 people were evacuated. The
discharge of radioactive water in Fukushima was confirmed in later analysis at the three reactors at
Fukushima I (Units 1, 2, and 3), which suffered meltdowns and continued to leak coolant water. A report by the
IAEA in 2012 found that the
Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant had remained largely undamaged. In 2013, only two nuclear reactors in Japan had been restarted since the 2011 shutdowns. In February 2019, there were 42 operable reactors in Japan. Of these, only nine reactors in five power plants were operating after having been restarted post-2011.
Fukushima meltdowns after the area was evacuated Japan declared a state of emergency following the failure of the cooling system at the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the evacuation of nearby residents. Officials from the Japanese
Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency reported that radiation levels inside the plant were up to 1,000 times normal levels, and that radiation levels outside the plant were up to eight times normal levels. Later, a state of emergency was also declared at the
Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant about south. Experts described the Fukushima disaster was not as bad as the
Chernobyl disaster, but worse than the
Three Mile Island accident. The
discharge of radioactive water of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was later detected in tap water. Radioactive iodine was detected in the tap water in Fukushima, Tochigi, Gunma, Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama, and Niigata, and radioactive caesium in the tap water in Fukushima, Tochigi and Gunma. Radioactive caesium, iodine, and strontium were also detected in the soil in some places in Fukushima. There may be a need to replace the contaminated soil. Many radioactive hotspots were found outside the evacuation zone, including Tokyo.
Radioactive contamination of food products were detected in several places in Japan. In 2021, the Japanese cabinet finally approved the
dumping of radioactive water in Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean over a course of 30 years, with full support of IAEA. To this day, the water is still actively being de-contaminated and is scheduled to be completed by the year 2051.
Incidents elsewhere A fire occurred in the turbine section of the
Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant following the earthquake. The blaze was in a building housing the turbine, which is sited separately from the plant's reactor, The plant was shut down as a precaution. On 13 March the lowest-level state of emergency was declared regarding the Onagawa plant as radioactivity readings temporarily exceeded allowed levels in the area of the plant. Tōhoku Electric Power Co. stated this may have been due to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accidents but was not from the Onagawa plant itself. As a result of the 7 April aftershock, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant lost three of four external power lines and lost cooling function for as much as 80 minutes. A spill of a couple of litres of radioactive water occurred at Onagawa. however, the Japan Atomic Power Company stated that there was a second operational pump sustaining the cooling systems, but that two of three diesel generators used to power the cooling system were out of order.
Transport Japan's transport network suffered severe disruptions. Many sections of
Tōhoku Expressway serving northern Japan were damaged. The expressway did not reopen to general public use until 24 March 2011. All railway services were suspended in Tokyo, with an estimated 20,000 people stranded at major stations across the city. In the hours after the earthquake, some train services were resumed. Most Tokyo area train lines resumed full service by the next day—12 March. Twenty thousand stranded visitors spent the night of 11–12 March inside
Tokyo Disneyland. A tsunami flooded
Sendai Airport at 15:55 JST, Various train services around Japan were also canceled, with
JR East suspending all services for the rest of the day. Four trains on coastal lines were reported as being out of contact with operators; one, a four-car train on the
Senseki Line, was found to have derailed, and its occupants were rescued shortly after 8 am the next morning.
Minami-Kesennuma Station on the
Kesennuma Line was obliterated save for its platform; 62 of 70 (31 of 35) JR East train lines suffered damage to some degree; There were no derailments of
Shinkansen bullet train services in and out of Tokyo, but their services were also suspended. Derailments were minimized because of an
early warning system that detected the earthquake before it struck. The system automatically stopped all high-speed trains, which minimized the damage. The
Tōhoku Shinkansen line was worst hit, with JR East estimating that 1,100 sections of the line, varying from collapsed station roofs to bent power pylons, would need repairs. Services on the Tōhoku Shinkansen partially resumed only in Kantō area on 15 March, with one round-trip service per hour between
Tokyo and
Nasu-Shiobara, and Tōhoku area service partially resumed on 22 March between
Morioka and
Shin-Aomori. Services on
Akita Shinkansen resumed with limited numbers of trains on 18 March. Service between Tokyo and
Shin-Aomori was restored by May, but at lower speeds due to ongoing restoration work; the pre-earthquake timetable was not reinstated until late September. The rolling blackouts brought on by the crises at the nuclear power plants in Fukushima had a profound effect on the rail networks around Tokyo starting on 14 March. Major railways began running trains at 10–20 minute intervals, rather than the usual 3–5 minute intervals, operating some lines only at rush hour and completely shutting down others; notably, the
Tōkaidō Main Line,
Yokosuka Line,
Sōbu Main Line and
Chūō-Sōbu Line were all stopped for the day. This led to near-paralysis within the capital, with long lines at train stations and many people unable to come to work or get home. Railway operators gradually increased capacity over the next few days, until running at approximately 80% capacity by 17 March and relieving the worst of the passenger congestion.
Telecommunications Cellular and landline phone service suffered major disruptions in the affected area. Immediately after the earthquake cellular communication was jammed across much of Japan due to a surge of network activity. On the day of the quake itself American broadcaster
NPR was unable to reach anyone in Sendai with a working phone or access to the Internet. Internet services were largely unaffected in areas where basic infrastructure remained, despite the earthquake having damaged portions of several
undersea cable systems landing in the affected regions; these systems were able to reroute around affected segments onto redundant links. Within Japan, only a few websites were initially unreachable. Several
Wi-Fi hotspot providers reacted to the quake by providing free access to their networks,
T-Mobile and VoIP companies such as netTALK and
Vonage have offered free calls to (and in some cases, from) Japan for a limited time, as did Germany's
Deutsche Telekom.
Defense Matsushima Air Field of the
Japan Self-Defense Force in Miyagi Prefecture received a tsunami warning, and the airbase public address 'Tanoy' was used to give the warning: 'A tsunami is coming evacuate to the third floor.' Shortly after the warning the airbase was struck by the tsunami, flooding the base. There was no loss of life, although the tsunami resulted in damage to all 18
Mitsubishi F-2 fighter jets of the 21st Fighter Training Squadron. Twelve of the aircraft were scrapped, while the remaining six were slated for repair at a cost of 80 billion yen ($1 billion), exceeding the original cost of the aircraft. After the tsunami, elements of the
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force put to sea without orders and started rescuing those who had been washed out to sea. Tsunami plans were for the Japan Self-Defense Forces assets to be led, directed, and coordinated by local civic governments. However, the earthquake destroyed town halls (the seat of local municipal government), police, and fire services in many places, so the military not only had to respond to but also command rescues.
Cultural properties at
Tokiwa shrine in
Mito City 754
cultural properties were damaged across nineteen prefectures, including five
National Treasures (at
Zuigan-ji,
Ōsaki Hachiman-gū,
Shiramizu Amidadō, and
Seihaku-ji); 160
Important Cultural Properties (including at
Sendai Tōshō-gū, the
Kōdōkan, and
Entsū-in, with its
Western decorative motifs); 144
Monuments of Japan (including
Matsushima,
Takata-matsubara,
Yūbikan, and the
Site of Tagajō); six
Groups of Traditional Buildings; and four
Important Tangible Folk Cultural Properties. Stone monuments at the UNESCO
World Heritage Site:
Shrines and Temples of Nikkō were toppled. In Tokyo, there was damage to
Koishikawa Kōrakuen,
Rikugien,
Hamarikyū Onshi Teien, and the walls of
Edo Castle. Information on the condition of collections held by museums, libraries and archives is still incomplete. There was no damage to the
Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi in Iwate Prefecture, and the recommendation for their inscription on the
UNESCO World Heritage List in June was seized upon as a symbol of international recognition and recovery. == Aftermath ==