4 years after Tohoku disaster, death toll stands at 15,890

Wednesday marks four years since an earthquake struck off the coast of Tohoku, sending a massive tsunami crashing into Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures, and triggering a nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that is still affecting thousands of lives.

As of March 1, according to National Police Agency (NPA) figures, the official number of deaths attributed to the disaster is 15,890 – 9,539 in Miyagi, 4,673 in Iwate, 1,611 in Fukushima, 24 in Ibaraki, 21 in Chiba, 7 in Tokyo, 4 each in Tochigi and Kanagawa, 3 in Aomori, 2 in Yamagata and 1 each in Gunma and Hokkaido. Of the total, the bodies of 83 victims have not been identified.

The NPA figures also show that 2,590 people remain missing in six prefectures -- 1,253 in Miyagi, 1,129 in Iwate, 204 in Fukushima, 2 in Chiba and 1 each in Ibaraki and Aomori, though police concede that some people may have used the disaster to go missing for reasons of their own.

Meanwhile, the Reconstruction Agency said Tuesday that 228,863 people were still living in temporary housing units.

© Japan Today