Miyagi
2011 tsunami killed 10,800; Miyagi rebuilt 95% of roads by 2021, hosted UN disaster conference 2015. 2026: exporting resilience expertise globally.
Miyagi exists in the tsunami's memory. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake sent waves up to 40 meters high into the Sendai coastal plain. Some 10,800 people died or remain missing—more than any other prefecture. Ninety percent of the region's 29,000 fishing boats were destroyed. The direct economic loss across Tohoku: $360 billion, with Miyagi contributing 1.7% of Japan's GDP.
The reconstruction that followed demonstrated Japan's industrial capacity for disaster recovery. By 2021, 95% of destroyed roads were rebuilt and improved. The journey from Kesennuma to Sendai dropped from two and a half hours to under one. Construction employment boomed; fisheries recovered with water quality tests within acceptable levels. In 2015, Sendai hosted the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, positioning the city as global authority on rebuilding.
Today, Sendai (population 1 million) anchors a prefecture that manufactures chemicals, electronics, and increasingly, disaster-resilient infrastructure. The tsunami memorials draw visitors who study how communities rebuild. By 2026, Miyagi's challenge shifts from reconstruction to growth: can the expertise in recovery become export commodity? The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction runs through 2030—the prefecture that learned hardest may teach longest.