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The figure is more than half of the town's population of 17,000, Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK announced on Saturday.
On Friday, an 8.9-magnitude earthquake, off the northeastern coast of Japan's main island, unleashed a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours.
According to Japan's National Police Agency, 703 people have been confirmed dead and 784 were missing, with 1,128 injured, excluding bodies reportedly found on the Sendai coast.
The combined number of people, who lost their lives or are unaccounted for in Friday's catastrophic earthquake in Japan topped 1,200 Saturday, according to a police tally.
According to Japanese officials, the death toll is expected to exceed 1,000.
MYA/HGH/MMN
10,000 people unaccounted for in Japan port: NHK
TOKYO, Japan - Around 10,000 people are unaccounted for in the Japanese port town of Minamisanriku in quake-hit Miyagi prefecture, public broadcaster NHK reported Saturday.
The figure is more than half of the population of about 17,000 in the town on the Pacific coast, Kyodo news reported.
Local authorities are trying to find their whereabouts with the help of Self-Defence Forces, NHK said.
Authorities have so far confirmed that around 7,500 people were evacuated to 25 shelters after Friday's quake, but they have been unable to contact the other 10,000, NHK said.
Canadian firms take stock of disaster in Japan
Exporters concerned
As Japan struggles with the aftermath of Friday's earthquake and tsunami, which closed plants and ports, Canadian businesses are taking stock of how the devastation might impact exports to the world's third-largest economy.
The island nation, slammed by an 8.9 magnitude quake and resulting walls of water, is a big market for Canadian natural resources, including coal, wheat, canola, pork and lumber.
It has also started buying more beef, with sales jumping 81 per cent to $67 million in the first 11 months of 2010.
"We'll know more in the next days and weeks how severe it was," federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, in Calgary for a funding announcement Friday, said. "Certainly I don't think it's going to affect our exports. The vast majority of the materials go into the larger centres to be processed and moved out.
"There could be something in the pipeline that's held up for a short amount of time, a ship that's going to have to anchor offshore until the harbour opens."
Companies who do business with Japan were also uncertain about what the impact would be, saying they are initially concerned how those they deal with have been affected.
"We have no information about the impact of the earthquake on shipments for our steelmaking coal, zinc and copper at this point," Marcia Smith, vice-president of corporate affairs for Teck Resources said in an e-mail.
"We are focused on checking on the impact of the earthquake on the people we deal with in Japan -our customers and partners -to make sure they are OK."
Maureen Fitzhenry, spokeswoman for the Canadian Wheat Board, said the board's staffer based in Japan is fine, but a group scheduled to leave for the country today for a barley showcase had postponed the journey.
Fitzhenry said it's too early to know whether grain shipments have been affected.
"At this time it's waiting and seeing," she added.
One analyst said while Japan's demand will slow down in the short term as it tries to assess and deal with the damage done, in the medium term the rebuilding will shift the focus onto new materials required, some of which Canada will supply.
"It tends to reduce the demand in the short term for iron ore, coking coal . . . but a month out people are going to start focusing on how much iron ore and coal they'll need," he added, adding Teck Resources, for example, sells about a quarter of its coal to Japan.
"Japan's going to see depressed (coal) sales in the short-term but (Teck will) likely get that rebound."
According to 2009 data from Japan's foreign affairs ministry, 19 per cent of the country's imports from Canada were coal, based on value. Canola had the second-highest value, making up almost 10 per cent of Canadian imports.
UBS said in a note that the area where the earthquake hit has "an exposure to raw materials" and that if local refineries and nuclear power plants are "shut down for longer, import demand for oil products might rise sharply, as well as for coal. For the latter, Japanese imports account for 18 per cent of global thermal coal trade."
Don Campbell, a former Canadian ambassador to Japan and distinguished fellow with the AsiaPacific Foundation of Canada, said he doesn't see a long-term impact on our exports.
"They're still going to need our goods and services," the senior strategy adviser for Davis LLP, which has an office in Japan, said.
kguttormson@calgaryherald.com
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