posted on March 8, 2016

  An earthquake of magnitude 9 and a huge tsunami hit the north-eastern part of Japan on March 11, 2011 and caused heavy destruction, including a serious nuclear accident in the prefecture of Fukushima. This disaster has claimed more than 20,000 victims, involving over 2,500 persons reported missing. 170,000 persons have been evacuated from the disaster-stricken areas which are on the path to reconstruction and revitalization. Today we can see how the situation has developed in 5 years by simply touching the screen of the computer. Google Street View has recently released images of the areas taken after the catastrophe as well as those taken during the recovery process in 82 municipalities in the Tohoku region. For example, please click on the link below to see the image taken 4 months after a large fishing vessel had been carried away by the tsunami onto the land about 0.6 miles away from a port of the city of Kesennuma in the Miyagi prefecture. I myself visited this place and watched this vessel on the spot in stunned silence.. It is generally true that the earthquakes are fairly frequent in Japan, meanwhile people are much aware of the measures to be taken in case of natural disasters, and besides, the construction of the earthquake resistant buildings will be the norm. We hope that the reconstruction of the devastated areas will be accelerated and that the measures to reduce impact of earthquakes will be further enhanced throughout the country. 

https://www.google.co.jp/maps/@38.9156548,141.5809726,3a,75y,300.58h,90.18t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1si2tkwWN8RzImxFRCD-vNBQ!2e0!5s20110701T000000!7i13312!8i6656

  We are grateful to all of you who have visited Japan as well as those who have offered their support to us in some way over the last 5 years. We keep walking forward to have a better future, so please come visit us to Japan to see the changes we are experiencing and the things remaining unchanged since ancient times.  Keiko