(ANSA) - TOKYO, MAR 11 - Japan commemorates the ten-year anniversary of the triple catastrophe in Fukushima: the 9 magnitude earthquake, the subsequent tsunami and the dispersion of radiation from the nuclear power plant, a chain of events that caused the deaths of over 15,000 people.
Residents of the areas most affected by the disaster, in the prefectures of Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi, will observe a minute of silence, exactly at 14:46 (6:46 in Italy), the precise time when the earthquake occurred.
Many municipalities have decided to go ahead with the organization of the ceremonies after the cancellation last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Also in Tokyo a memorial will be organized at the National Theater with the presence of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Emperor Naruhito and his wife Masako, but on this occasion the public will not be admitted for the traditional floral offers.
The commemoration event has been held annually since 2012, but in 2020 former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe merely offered flowers, recording a message from his residence.
During a visit to the prefecture of Fukushima, in the past days, Suga reiterated the government's willingness to go ahead with the reconstruction process in the devastated areas, and this direction includes the extension until 2031 of the work of the Reconstruction Agency, set up specifically to coordinate the reconstruction of the area.
More than 30,000 billion yen (€ 232 billion) has been spent on land reconstruction projects over the past 10 years, with evacuation orders only partially removed in some areas, while the region's decontamination process continues.
A task considered mammoth considering that the area that remains inaccessible, in particular near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, has an extension of 337 square kilometers.
(HANDLE).
