I don't agree with this as I said why in my post. The epicentre of this earthquake was off-shore which saved many buildings along the coast from collapse, unfortunately it triggered the tsunami. Not all of Japanese buildings have been built to the strict standards imposed in the early 70's, there were quite a few shots today of 4/5 story buildings collapsing.
There's no doubt that an earthquake of this magnitude would have significant effects in any populated area, look at Chile in 2010, that was an 8.8 eathquake that devasted a large area of the country.