2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami

The '2011 Sendai earthquake and tsunami was an earthquake in Japan that occurred on March 11, 2011.

Nintendo and the video game industry
Shortly after the devastating earthquake occurred, Nintendo announced to their fans that all of their employees remained unharmed. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami didn't hit Kyoto, where Nintendo's main headquarters is located, but did have an effect on Tokyo where Nintendo EAD Tokyo among other Nintendo subsidiaries are stationed. Several days after the earthquake Nintendo and other video game companies donated millions of dollars of yen to relief efforts. A partial listing of video game companies involved is below:


 * Nintendo - Donated 300 million yen.
 * Sega - Donated 200 million yen.
 * Namco Bandai - Donated 100 million yen.
 * Tecmo Koei - Donated 10 million yen to the Japanese Red Cross.

Developers such as Masahiro Sakurai (Kirby, Super Smash Bros., Kid Icarus: Uprising) tweeted after the event and posted images of the destruction online.

Tatsuro Iwamoto, Phoenix Wright illustrator, drew a piece of artwork that features the main characters of the Phoenix Wright games urging people to "work hard" and "not be defeated" by the earthquake.

For a couple of days some Pokémon fansites reported rumors that series creator Satoshi Tajiri had died in the earthquake, though this was quickly proven false.