A major earthquake (9 on the Richter scale) striked at 14:46 a motor manufacturing and assembly plant located in the city of Iwaki industrial district. Given its location 10 meters above the sea level and 2 km away from the seafront, the plant is not flooded by the 3.3 meters high tsunami which engulfed the neighbouring Iwaki port, but the main buiding suffered seismic damage. A few minutes after the foreshocks, a fire occured on the die-casting line following a spill of molten aluminum. The fire was brought under control by employees with the help of fire extinguishers. Many overhead equipments fell on the ground: conveyors, air ducts ,suspended ceilings, broadcast systems. Cabinets in offices and in the cafeteria, as well as engines being assembled, fell to the ground, exterior walls were cracked and floors submitted to 13-15 cm liquefaction in some places, many windows and light bulbs were broken. The water supply was cut for 40 days and the waste water treatment plant was damaged. Aftershocks (Mw = 7.1 ), occurring 1 month later, worsened the damage and destroyed some of the repairs already made. Among the 730 employees, two were slightly injured. The plant restarted two months later, once the equipment had been repaired and recalibrated. The amount of damage was estimated at 10 million of Euros.

To better prepare for future earthquakes, the operator improved resistance of overhead equipments and pipes to vibration, install a backup power supply for the furnaces, changed the lighting in the facilities (incorpored in fiberglass ceilings), reinforced the earthquake resistance of soils and areas supporting the production equipment (installation of steel pillars), reduced the risk of injury from window breakage (safety films, dampers on casement windows and doors) or falling equipment (anchoring on the floor). Evacuation route with fluorescent tape and self powered emergency lighting were also installed. A stock of 3 days supply of vital utilities (water, foof) and essential repair parts was established.