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The gigantic 2011, March 11 Mw 9 Tohoku earthquake is examined from the viewpoint of the pre-seismic forearc structure, the seismic reflection properties of a megathrust around the usual up-dip limit of the seismogenic zone, the thermal state of a shallow subduction zone, and the dehydration of underthrust sediments. At the Japan Trench the Pacific Plate is subducting westward beneath northeast Japan at a dip angle of 4.6°. The middle and lower slopes of the landward side dip eastward at angles of ∼2.5° and ∼8.0°, respectively. The forearc prism beneath the middle and lower slopes is inferred to be in extensionally and compressively critical states, respectively, based on the presence of clear internal deformation features and on the occurrence of aftershock earthquakes. The rapid uplift of the forearc that caused the 2011 Tohoku tsunami may have been associated with this internal deformation of the prism …