I was speaking with a friend in Tokyo while they were getting 5.0-6.0 aftershocks every several minutes this morning. Although much of the Country is standardized much higher for earthquakes not all of it is - the Northern, Miyagi prefecture (near Sendai) is very industrial and even a "crack in a wall" can be catastrophic. So, locally, where a lot of that was located it's still going to be painful. Yes, compared to some places in the world - better, but still. Not to mention the in-rushing water for those areas.
He said that the local newscasters were covering as much as they could but when they came back from a remote-reporter... they were all wearing helmets in the studio. That had to be weirdly comical.
They were losing power and utilities in various areas due to a bit of domino-effect with Sendai nuclear plant losing cooling and other resources getting the extra demand.
A strange thing too... he said that outside his apartment all appeared generally normal except long lines at the payphones.
Of all the places in the world I thought a payphone would have been a distant memory in the historical rearview mirror it would have been Japan! Evidently not.