Some 27,600 Evacuees Remain 14 Years after Monster Quake

From Jiji

March 10 2025

TOKYO – About 27,600 people still live as evacuees 14 years after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and monster tsunami caused tremendous disasters, including a nuclear accident, mainly in the Tohoku region, northeastern Japan.

 As of Feb. 1, 27,615 afflicted people had yet to return home, the Reconstruction Agency said.

The earthquake occurred off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, measuring 7, the highest on the Japanese seismic intensity scale, in the prefecture while jolting the country almost entirely.

According to police, 15,900 people were killed by the disasters, collectively called Great East Japan Earthquake, and 2,520 are still missing. In addition, disaster-related deaths totaled 3,808 as of Dec. 31 last year, the agency said.

Several parts of Fukushima Prefecture are still under evacuation orders the central government issued following the triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant. There are residents who have given up on ever returning home.