[EnquiringMind]

An 8.9 quake in a populated area could certainly do this.

I agree. I thought I heard that the hardest hit area had one million+ population. This figure doesn't seem unrealistic to me.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Just the city of Sendai has a population of over one million. The entire Miyagi Prefecture has a population of over two point three million.

That being said, remember that these are just estimates. The final numbers could be higher or lower, we'll just have to wait and see.