Probably never will ever no how many people is missing, etc. This country needs to prepare for something like this.
What? Japan is probably the most prepared country for earthquakes in the entire world. They were even warned about 1 minute before it hit.
This country means "America".
America, to an extent, is prepared for natural disasters. However, the United States is
much larger than Japan and also faces more varied natural threats.
The parts of the country that are used to earthquakes have stronger building codes than in other places. However, if a rare earthquake should strike in an unexpected and unprepared place, there can be a disaster. The west coast, including Hawaii and Alaska, are the most prepared for a tsunami (though, really, what can one do?). However, should an Atlantic tsunami (similar to the one that affected Newfoundland in the 1920s) strike... good luck to the people on the eastern seaboard. The South gets paralyzed in a snowfall that Northerners hardly even notice.
Since Japan is small, it's more homogeneous in terms of the disasters it can face, and the whole country can prepare accordingly. The United States is larger and faces a much wider variety of natural disasters, though each kind is generally limited to a local scale.
But, as I already said, it's impossible to prepare for everything, especially against Mother Nature.