It is not clear, at this point, whether the earthquake off of Sendai City, however, is directly or more indirectly related to the shifts and pressure on and around the ISTL.
Japan has certainly suffered great numbers of damaging earthquakes historically. For example, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 led to over 100,000 deaths in the Tokyo region alone. Incidentally, some 30 million people currently live in that same Kanto region. It is claimed, however, that modern earthquake-resistant structure will protect these inhabitants better than the flimsier structures of by-gone generations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes
It is, therefore, important to recognize that the Haiti Earthquake of January 2010, with a 7.0 score on the Richter scale, killed more people and destroyed a greater percentage of that society's structures than the Sendai Earthquake has.
In short, construction practices in any country make a difference in the post-earthquake survival rate, but they do not stop tsunamis nor impede them very much, especially when the tsunamis hit ten meters in height for a hundred or more kilometers along any particular coast--as was the case with the Sendai Quake for Northeast Honshu.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI69NoL_wLY
"A report published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) suggests that the tsunami of 26th December 2004 caused less damage in the areas where natural barriers were present, such as mangroves, coral reefs or coastal vegetation. A Japanese study of this tsunami in Sri Lanka used satellite imagery modelling to establish the parameters of coastal resistance as a function of different types of trees."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami
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