5.3-magnitude quake strikes off Japan's Fukushima Prefecture, no tsunami warning issued

17:53, March 17, 2021

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  Tokyo Olympic torch relay to take place as scheduled

  The Tokyo Olympic torch relay will kick off as scheduled in northeastern Japan's Fukushima prefecture on March 25, organizers announced on Monday.The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee will hold a grand start of the torch relay at the J-Village National Training Center in Fukushima, which was hit hard

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  10 years on, Japan's tsunami-hit school still tells unimaginable tragedy

  Visitors watch photos of the school before the disaster displayed at the ruins of the Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki, Japan, March 9, 2021. A public elementary school in Miyagi Prefecture lost more than 80 lives in the tsunami following the March 2011 earthquake in northeastern Japan. Ten yea

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  Japan marks decade since 2011 quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster

  Search continue in Miyagi as loved ones refuse to relinquish hope of finding them even a decade on. (Photos: AFP)Japan on Thursday marks 10 years since the worst natural disaster in the countrys living memory: a powerful earthquake, deadly tsunami and nuclear meltdown that traumatised a nation.Around 18,500 people were killed or left missing in the disaster, most of them claimed by the towering waves that swept across swathes of the northeast coast after one of the strongest quakes ever recorded.The ensuing nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant blanketed nearby areas with radiation, rendering some towns uninhabitable for years and displacing tens of thousands of residents.The day will be full of private and public ceremonies, with a minutes silence marked nationwide at 14.46 local time, the precise moment a 9.0-magnitude quake struck on March 11, 2011, triggering the disaster.On Wednesday and Thursday there were searches in Miyagi and Fukushima regions for those still missing, as loved ones refuse to relinquish hope of finding them even a decade on.The chances of success may appear slim, but just last week the remains of a woman missing since the tsunami were identified, in what her surviving son described as a chance to process his emotions and move forward.In Tokyo, a slimmed-down ceremony observing virus rules will be held at the national theatre, with speeches delivered by Emperor Naruhito and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.Tokyo and surrounding areas are currently under a virus state of emergency, so the audience invited to the event will be smaller than usual.The virus will also affect events elsewhere, including an annual prayer gathering held on top of the imposing sea walls in the town of Taro in Iwate.Participants usually hold hands as they pray for those lost in the tsunami, but this year they will observe social distancing as they remember the dead.People (top) evacuated by boat down a road flooded by the tsunami waves in the c...