The World Bank's estimated economic cost was US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in history. The Bank of Japan offered ¥15 trillion (US$183 billion) to the banking system on 14 March 2011 in an effort to normalize market conditions. Residents within a 20 km (12 mi) radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and a 10 km (6.2 mi) radius of the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated.Įarly estimates placed insured losses from the earthquake alone at US$14.5 to $34.6 billion.

Without ventilation, gas accumulated within the upper refueling hall and eventually exploded causing the refueling hall's blast panels to be forcefully ejected from the structure. The heat build-up caused the generation of hydrogen gas. The loss of electrical power halted cooling systems, causing heat to build up. Many electrical generators ran out of fuel. The tsunami caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, primarily the meltdowns of three of its reactors, the discharge of radioactive water in Fukushima and the associated evacuation zones affecting hundreds of thousands of residents. The official figures released in 2021 reported 19,759 deaths, 6,242 injured, and 2,553 people missing, and a report from 2015 indicated 228,863 people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent relocation.

The snowfall which accompanied the tsunami and the freezing temperature hindered rescue works greatly for instance, Ishinomaki, the city with most deaths, was 0 ☌ (32 ☏) as the tsunami hit. Residents of Sendai had only eight to ten minutes of warning, and more than a hundred evacuation sites were washed away. The earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5 meters (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture, and which, in the Sendai area, traveled at 700 km/h (435 mph) and up to 10 km (6 mi) inland. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake recorded in the world since modern seismography began in 1900. The disaster is often referred to by its numerical date, 3.11 (read san ten ichi-ichi in Japanese). It is sometimes known in Japan as the ' Great East Japan Earthquake' ( 東日本大震災, Higashi nihon daishinsai ), among other names. It lasted approximately six minutes, causing a tsunami. On 11 March 2011, at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC), a M w 9.0–9.1 undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, 72 km (45 mi) east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region.

Waves complete 11 0 46