it is a bad earthquake – equivalent to Cromer and Yarmouth being wiped off the face of the earth, and half the North Sea coming inland – but JP and the surrounding areas gets this sort of thing fairly regularly. Even this sort of huge earthquake can happen in that region more than once every century.
at work a lot of people were concerned about it as their family are in the nearby Phillipines.
The Japanese only live in 20% of their country. The rest of it is not habitable because of the risk of earthquakes and other natural hazards and is left to be forests, mountains and jungle. But in coastal areas there is a dilemma as they are valuable gateways to resources so people understandably want to live and work there.
