Japan earthquake and tsunami, severe natural disaster that occurred in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, and killed at least 20,000 people. The power of tsunami was completely unexpected for Japan. The event began with a powerful earthquake off the coast of Honshu, Japan’s main island, which initiated a series of large … The figure above shows the inundation height of tsunami from mean sea level by town in Japan. Japanese tsunami stood at 132.5ft The tsunami that struck north-east Japan in March rose to a maximum height of 132.5ft, according to researchers, taller than Rio's Christ the Redeemer. In order to see how high the tsunami was, I made a figure based on the height of tsunami recorded by the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami Joint Survey Group in Japan. Although Japan has invested the equivalent of billions of dollars on anti-tsunami seawalls which line at least 40% of its 34,751 km (21,593 mi) coastline and stand up to 12 m (39 ft) high, the tsunami simply washed over the top of some seawalls, collapsing some in the process. Tsunami height: 27 – 44ft Fatalities: 4; Kuji was the northernmost city in the Tohoku region to be severely affected by the 2011 tsunami. Due to the bathymetry of the coastline, the tsunami in Kuji Bay developed into a series of bores (steep waves) with vertical heights of approximately 20ft. Tsunamis in Japan In a total of 141 tidal waves classified as a tsunami since 684 a total of …