2008 Iwate–Miyagi Nairiku earthquake

Landslides triggered by this earthquake crushed structures, buried people, cut off access to certain roads, and isolated some rural communities.[11] Mud from landslides dammed up rivers to form lakes called "quake lakes" (せき止め湖, sekitomeko).[12]

By June 19, the Ministry of Land had identified fifteen quake lakes in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures,[13] and work crews began draining three of them which were at high risk of overflow or breach from rain or aftershocks.[14][15]

By 17:50 JST, June 25, twelve people were confirmed dead and 358 injured, and ten still missing.[16]

• In the city of Kurihara, Miyagi Pref., five people were buried in a landslide at a hot-spring inn called Komanoyu, which had stood on the mountainside of Mt. Kurikoma.[16][17] A woman aged 80 who had co-managed the inn with her husband, her 58-year-old son, a woman aged 75 who had worked at the inn, a 48-year-old tourism consultant, and an attendant of the Railway Museum aged 35 were all killed in the landslide.[18][19][20]
• In the city of Kurihara, along Route 398, a landslide overwhelmed and killed three workers setting a rockfall containment net on a hillside.[16][21][22][23]
• Also in the city of Kurihara, along Route 398, a 59-year-old man was killed when his car was carried away by a landslide and buried.[16][24]
• At a dam construction site in the city of Ōshū, Iwate Pref., a worker aged 48 was struck by falling rocks and died.[16][21]
• In the city of Ichinoseki, Iwate Pref., a person surprised by the tremor ran out into the road and was fatally struck by a truck.[16][21]
• In the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Pref., near a fishing port, a person aged 55 was struck by falling rocks while fishing, fell into the sea, and drowned.[16][21]
• In the city of Ōshū, a landslide caused a group of 20 people to become temporarily trapped in an overturned bus.[25] Eight of them were injured,[16] including one critically and five seriously.[26] The bus was running when overturned, and ten passengers escaped, prompted by the driver. Then an aftershock caused the bus to slip down slowly into a ravine until it was caught on some trees.[26] One of the passengers who had escaped walked down the road with a mobile phone until he was able to get a signal, and made an emergency call.[26]

No nuclear power plants were shut down following this earthquake[27] unlike the 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake quake. Some water was found to have splashed out of a reaction container in the Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant possibly due to the tremor, but no radioactive material was released to the environment.[27][28]

Expressways in Tōhoku region were closed in several sections, but all reopened by nighttime, barring traffic restrictions in one section for repair work.[29]

Some train services by JR East were suspended on Shinkansen and local lines, and resumed on the following day from the first scheduled trains.[30]

On Tōhoku Shinkansen, all running trains, about 20, were stopped by an earthquake detection system. Most were soon moved to the nearest stations.[31] However, about 2,000 passengers were temporarily trapped inside three trains[32] before being evacuated[31] up to nine and a half hours later,[33] because the trains were forced to stay in place while equipment inspections were carried out.[31]

Suspensions on Tōhoku, Akita, Yamagata Shinkansen and delays on Jōetsu, Nagano Shinkansen reportedly involved 117,000 passengers.[33] No trains derailed.[32]