I have a theory that it is more to do with the fact that every bit of news related to a disaster is picked up and makes headlines everywhere because of the 24-hour news cycle, and while a lot is happening, and it is sad.

Japan for example is on an active fault line, and has earthquakes often, just this one was unusually large. And the fault lines and continental plates are all, of course connected to each other, so it is not really surprising that NZ and Japan both had big quakes near each other, if you at plate tectonics.