On June 6, 2005, Tarō, along with the village of Niisato (also from Shimohei District), merged into the expanded city of Miyako and no longer exists as an independent municipality.

The former town is located to the east of the prefectural capital Morioka and north of the regional center Miyako with which it has now merged.

The seawalls had two joined sections forming seaward and landward levees, and ran to a total of 2.4 km (1.5 mi) long.

[2] The seawalls, which could theoretically stop breaking waves up to 8 metres (26 ft) high, were designed to divert tsunamis to the side around the town using channels and river dykes.

[2] Local municipal agencies regularly carried out annual tsunami drills simulating an emergency, wherein volunteers would close the seawall gates and residents would go to muster points above the town.

The system worked well when a tsunami from the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile struck the town, resulting in zero lives lost in Tarō.