How much damage was caused by the 2011 Japan earthquake?

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said the March 11, 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake (originally reported as 8.9) was the "biggest quake to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world".

According to several US news organizations including CBSNEWS, the USGS provided a comparison to gain perspective of Japan's recent earthquake.

It was cited that

"USGS compared Japan's earthquake with two well known quakes: last year's earthquake in Haiti and the historic 1906 San Francisco quake.

The USGS calculated Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake in Japan to be 700 times stronger than Haiti's recent magnitude 7.0 earthquake, which devastated Port-au-Prince and killed more than 300,000 people.

When comparing to the 1906 earthquake, the USGS has figured that Japan's earthquake is equivalent to 30 of the San Francisco earthquakes."

U.S. government scientists at USGS originally put the Japan quake at 8.9. The change to 9.0 means that the quake was about 1.5 times stronger than initially thought.

The Japan quake is now the fourth largest in the world since 1900 behind the 2004 magnitude-9.1 Sumatra quake.

UPDATE: Official magnitude was updated to 9.1 on Nov 7, 2016.