TOKYO, March 11- Japan on Monday marked the second anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami which destroyed the country’s northeast part and triggered the world’s worst nuclear disaster since the 1996 Chernobyl crisis, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Japanese government will hold a memorial ceremony in central Tokyo later in the afternoon, with Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expected to attend. Other memorial events will be also held outside the capital in three prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, which were seriously damaged by the tsunami due to the offshore 9.0-magnitude earthquake.
In a video speech on the Prime Minister’s Office website, Abe vowed the government will accelerate reconstruction in the northeast region. Abe called on all Japanese to support the disaster-affected areas by visiting the regions and purchasing products from the affected prefectures.
The temblor and tsunami left more than 18,000 people dead and missing with 315,000 people still living in temporary houses as of February. About 57,000 residents evacuated from their homes in Fukushima, where a nuclear power plant was crippled, have not returned to the prefecture due to high radioactivity.
BERNAMA
