A mere 15 minutes before Azuma Konno, a Democratic Party of Japan candidate running in Sunday's Lower House election, was set to make a stump speech in front of JR Sendai Station last Friday evening, a 7.4-magnitude quake struck deep off Miyagi's shore, flooding one coastal district with 1-meter-high tsunami.
Konno immediately used his microphone to warn passersby that a tsunami alert had been issued, but as one of the Reconstruction Agency's three vice ministers, he had to leave right away to deal with the emergency, abandoning his planned speech.
DPJ policy head Goshi Hosono, who had traveled to Sendai in support of Konno, an Upper House member from Miyagi before entering the race for Sunday's election in the prefecture's No. 2 district, also left immediately to join the government's response to the temblor. Hosono did manage to briefly grab the microphone before his exit, although most people simply swarmed past him into the station.