As Japan fell silent to remember the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than twenty thousand people and devastated coastal areas, Reuters journalists around the world offered deep insight into the catastrophic impact still felt by some a decade later.
In a moving special report, Ten years on, grief never subsides for some survivors of Japan’s tsunami, Reuters journalists explored the scale of loss suffered by many who remain in hart-hit coastal towns. “When the tide finally receded, the world had changed. I thought maybe time would solve things, but I know now that’s not the case. There are things you want to forget but can’t,” said Yoshihito Sasaki, who lost his wife in the tsunami.
Reuters photographs of survivors who call lost loves on the ‘phone of the wind’ received wide coverage across international and local media and social channels, with incredibly powerful pictures of relatives who say using the unconnected phone line in the town of Otsuchi gives them some solace as they grapple with their grief. Reuters Special Correspondent Mari Sato appeared on the Japan Times podcast and ABC TV’s The World to discuss the story.
A Wider Image photo essay offered a look at a man who saves forgotten cats in the nuclear zone. It was a standout on social media last week and went viral in Japanese, with some people getting in touch to ask how they could help efforts to save the cats. The Reuters video package on the story had more than 1.4 million view on Yahoo and nearly 200,000 on Japanese-language Twitter.
On the day of the anniversary, Reuters clients used Reuters coverage on everything from the moment of silence to speeches by the emperor and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to fireworks in Fukushima.
Additional coverage included:
Ten years after disaster, Fukushima’s ‘singing’ pottery comes home, which tells the story of a thirteenth-generation potter living in Namie, a town close to the Fukushima plant, who was forced to evacuate.
Analysis: Japan’s ‘solidarity’ quake tax may be model to foot pandemic bill which explored how the same method could be used to shoulder the much bigger spending needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
How Toyota thrives when the chips are down, which examined Toyota’s ability to ride out a chip shortage as a result of lessons learned from the Fukushima crisis.
Ten years after Fukushima, Japan remembers ‘man-made’ nuclear disaster was a sharp look at the legacy of the crisis for Japan’s politics and energy policy.
With green energy, Japanese governor wants to take Fukushima out of nuclear shadow revealed the prefecture’s effort to remake itself as a hub for green energy.
Events following Japan’s worst quake and nuclear incident offered a comprehensive timeline of events.
Climbing without a map: Japan’s nuclear clean-up has no end in sight reported the huge task for the nuclear clean-up that still lies ahead.
You can find the full coverage here.
With 2,500 journalists in 200 locations, Reuters covers the real world in real time.
[Reuters PR blog post]
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