Search｜Photos & Images & Videos｜KYODO NEWS IMAGES INC

12th anniversary of 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

A woman prays while facing the sea in the Iwate Prefecture town of Otsuchi, northeastern Japan, on March 11, 2023, the 12th anniversary of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that devastated the country's northeast.

E

Temporary housing residents' picture-story shows

MORIOKA, Japan - Yuriko Nakamura (front L) and other residents of temporary housing in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, hold hand-made picture-story cards based on local folklore on June 18, 2014, in the northeastern Japanese town.

E

New Year decoration at makeshift barber shop in Iwate Pref.

OTSUCHI, Japan - Tetsuro Abe puts up a New Year decoration around the entrance of his makeshift barber shop in the disaster-hit town of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture on Dec. 31, 2011. The barber shop, which was opened by his father and had been in business for 40 years, was washed away by the March 11 tsunami.

E

Tsunami-hit railway line to be restored

MORIOKA, Japan - East Japan Railway Co.'s Namiitakaigan Station on the suspended Yamada Line is shown with its rails cut off in the distance in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, in this file photo taken in November 2014. The company and the local community agreed on Dec. 24, 2014, to restore the line wrecked by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

E

Fish shop owner in tsunami-hit town fillets salmon

TOKYO, Japan - Shoetsu Mukushi, owner of a family-run seafood-processing firm, cuts a lightly salted salmon into fillets in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Dec. 8, 2014. The town and other parts of the northeastern Japan region of Tohoku were ravaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and ensuing tsunami in 2011 but he revived the business a month after the disaster.

E

Worker in tsunami-hit town shows off marine products

TOKYO, Japan - Yuko Mukushi of a family-run seafood-processing firm in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, northeastern Japan, shows off a box of filleted salmon and other marine products at a shop in the prefectural city of Kamaishi on Dec. 9, 2014. Her father revived the business a month after the Great East Japan Earthquake hit the region in 2011.

E

Car parked near site of home swept away by 2011 tsunami

OTSUCHI, Japan - Yoshihiro Abe, who lost his parents in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeastern Japan region of Tohoku, has his car parked in this file photo of Aug. 11, 2014, near the site of their home that was swept away by the disaster. He regularly visits the location in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, by driving about two hours from the inland town of Shiwa.

E

Man takes flowers to parents' home on mother's birthday

OTSUCHI, Japan - Yoshihiro Abe, who lost his parents in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeastern Japan region of Tohoku, carries flowers to the site of their home in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on July 7, 2014, the birthday of his mother Koyo.

E

Japanese high schooler at Fukushima festival in Paris

Paris, France - Rinoa Nakai of Otsuchi High School in Iwate Prefecture talks with visitors on Aug. 31, 2014, at a booth at a two-day cultural event in Paris titled "Ring of Tohoku Rebirth," an OECD project to help the 2011 earthquake-hit northeastern Japanese region get back on its feet. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo also visited the event.

E

'Benzaiten' statue before and after repair

OTSUCHI, Japan - The repaired statue of "Benzaiten," a Japanese goddess originated from the Hindu goddess Saraswati, is shown on the right in Otsuchi town, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 31, 2014, a far cry from the tattered figure (L) pictured in May 2013 after it was damaged by the devastating 2011 tsunami.

E

Repaired 'Benzaiten' statue unveiled in Iwate Pref.

MORIOKA, Japan - The statue of "Benzaiten," a Japanese goddess originated from the Hindu goddess Saraswati, is displayed in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 31, 2014, after repairs from damaged caused by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami were completed. It was originally enshrined at the town's gourd-shaped Horai Island (L back), regarded as the model of the island in the TV puppet show "Hyokkori Hyotanjima."

E

Fireworks display to mourn victims of 2011 disaster

OTSUCHI, Japan - People watch a fireworks display in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 11, 2014, to mourn the victims of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern Japan region.

E

Tsunami-hit Iwate beach reopens after 3 years of cleanup

MORIOKA, Japan - Children play at Kirikiri beach in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on July 26, 2014, after it reopened following three years of work to remove debris caused by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Only one-third, or a roughly 130-meter section, of the beach is open for swimming through Aug. 10 due to ongoing work to rebuild a breakwater.

E

Tsunami-hit Iwate beach reopens after 3 years of cleanup

MORIOKA, Japan - Children play at Kirikiri beach in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on July 26, 2014, after it reopened following three years of work to remove debris caused by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Only one-third, or a roughly 130-meter section, of the beach is open for swimming through Aug. 10 due to ongoing work to rebuild a breakwater.

E

Tsunami-hit Otsuchi town compiles new evacuation map

OTSUCHI, Japan - The updated tsunami evacuation map created by the disaster-hit town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, is pictured in this undated photo. The map contains information to help residents prepare for a major tsunami, including evacuation sites and the need to carry photos of their family members if the members get separated, etc. The tentative version was made in August 2013.

E

PM Abe visits Iwate Pref.

OTSUCHI, Japan - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talks with members of the Otsuchi Recovery Sashiko Project group in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on July 2, 2014. After the visit to the prefecture, the prime minister revealed a plan to create a new funding scheme to offer financial support for reconstruction from the 2011 disaster. (Pool photo)

E

PM Abe visits Iwate Pref.

OTSUCHI, Japan - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits a factory of a marine product processing company in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on July 2, 2014. After the visit to the prefecture, the prime minister revealed a plan to create a new funding scheme to offer financial support for reconstruction from the 2011 disaster. (Pool photo)

E

Man prays for his 2011 disaster-victim parents

OTSUCHI, Japan - Yoshihiro Abe prays for his parents, victims of the March 11, 2011, disaster, as he crouches on a walkway before a lot where his parent's home used to stand in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on June 11, 2014. A message to them that he sprayed on the path in blue ink says, "Where have you gone? We are all waiting for your return."

E

Message for man's disaster-victim parents

OTSUCHI, Japan - Yoshihiro Abe pours water over a message he sprayed for his parents, victims of the March 11, 2011, disaster, on a walkway in front of the land where his parents house used to stand in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on June 11, 2014.

E

Demolition of ex-Otsuchi town office bldg. begins

MORIOKA, Japan - Demolition works of the former town office building in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, begins in full-swing on June 4, 2014 by using heavy machinery. Since opinions of local residents are polarized regarding the demolition of the building, where 40 town officials died due to tsunami in the March 11 devastating earthquake in 2011, part of the building, including the front entrance, will be kept as a relic.

E

Children plant 'miracle' rice seedlings

TONDABAYASHI, Japan - Elementary school students in Tondabayashi, Osaka Prefecture, on May 25, 2014, plant rice seedlings cultivated from the seeds of rice plants that were growing in the debris from the March 2011 tsunami disaster in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture.

E

Garden designer Sasaki holds 'Kaze no Denwa' picture book

TOKYO, Japan - Garden designer Itaru Sasaki in February 2014 holds picture book "Kaze no Denwa" (The Phone of the Wind), themed after a phone booth he built to provide a place to mourn for people who lost their loved ones in the March 2011 disaster, in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture. Visitors talk with their missing or deceased family members or friends in their heart at the booth. The book was written by children's book author Yoko Imoto.

E

'Kaze no Denwa' phone booth in Otsuchi Town

TOKYO, Japan - A phone booth built to provide a place to mourn for people who lose their loved ones in the March 2011 disaster stands in its builder Itaru Sasaki's garden in Otsuchi Town in Iwate Prefecture in February 2014.

E

2 and a half years after quake

SENDAI, Japan - Combination photos taken from a Kyodo News helicopter show the Akahama area in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on April 10, 2011 (L), about a month after the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake, and about two and a half years later on Sept. 6, 2013 (R). A pleasure boat that was washed up on the roof of an inn (upper in the former) by the tsunami was dismantled, but the town government of Otsuchi now plans to restore it to preserve the memory of the disaster.

E

Young returnees to Tohoku aiding post-earthquake recovery

MORIOKA, Japan - Photo taken June 7, 2013 shows Mamoru Kondo (back L) and Mariko Takada talking with a resident at a temporary housing site in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture. Kondo and Takada are among a growing number of young people who are returning to their hometowns in the Tohoku region to support their recovery from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

E

Tsunami memorial

OTSUCHI, Japan - Photo on March 26, 2013, shows the former town hall of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, damaged by a tsunami in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Otsuchi Mayor Yutaka Ikarigawa expressed an intention on March 27, 2013, to preserve part of the building as a memorial.

E

Tsunami memorial

OTSUCHI, Japan - Photo on Feb. 18, 2013, shows the former town hall of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, damaged by a tsunami in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Otsuchi Mayor Yutaka Ikarigawa expressed an intention on March 27, 2013, to preserve part of the building as a memorial.

E

Monument for eternal memory of tsunami

OTSUCHI, Japan - Yusaku Yoshida (L), a 16-year-old high school student in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, and Tadayoshi Oguni, deputy chief of the Ando district neighborhood association, stand in front of a wooden monument Yoshida erected on a hill there on March 11, 2013 to indefinitely remember the devastating tsunami that hit the northeastern Japan region of Tohoku exactly two years earlier.

E

2 years after Japan quake

OTSUCHI, Japan - Bereaved family members offer prayers for their loved ones during a memorial ceremony held at a local disaster-prevention center in the city of Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 11, 2013, the second anniversary of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country's northeastern region. Many residents were killed by the tsunami after being evacuated to the center.

E

2 years after quake

OTSUCHI, Japan - Photos show an area in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on April 10, 2011 (L), shortly after the area was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the same location on March 4, 2013, with a shipyard having been reconstructed and the pleasure boat Hamayuri that was washed up on the roof of an inn having been removed.

E

2 years after quake in Tohoku

MORIOKA, Japan - Yutaka Ikarigawa (R), mayor of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture, breaks the ground during a ceremony to pray for safety at the start of construction of post-disaster public housing in the town on Feb. 25, 2013.

E

Shizuoka to dispose of debris from quake-hit Iwate

SHIZUOKA, Japan - Employees of the Shizuoka city government and local residents, in Shizuoka city on Oct. 18, 2012, measure levels of airborne radiation from incinerated debris generated in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Four Shizuoka municipalities the same day started receiving shipments of debris from Iwate Prefecture for disposal.

E

Shizuoka to dispose of quake debris from Iwate

SHIZUOKA, Japan - Photo shows combustible debris generated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, arriving for disposal at an incineration plant in Shizuoka city on Oct. 18, 2012. Four Shizuoka municipalities the same day started receiving debris from Iwate Prefecture for disposal.

E

1 and half years after quake

OTSUCHI, Japan - Buddhist monks chant a sutra at the former town hall building of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Sept. 11, 2012, one and a half years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

E

Otsuchi town in August 2012

OTSUCHI, Japan - Photo shows a part of the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 13, 2012. While most of the debris from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami has been cleaned up, a wide swath of the town remains vacant.

E

1 and a half years after quake

SENDAI, Japan - Combination photos from a Kyodo News helicopter show an area in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on April 10, 2011 (L), after the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake, and about one and a half years later on Sept. 3, 2012 (R).

E

Tokyo NPOs provide tutors for kids in quake-hit town

OTSUCHI, Japan - Aya Kawai deals with questions from a junior high school student at a tutorial class in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on July 2, 2012. She is a staff member of a free after-school program launched by Tokyo-based nonprofit organizations.

E

Initiation ceremony in tsunami-hit area

OTSUCHI, Japan - A newly hired employee of the Otsuchi town office in Iwate Prefecture receives a letter of appointment during an initiation ceremony at a temporary town office building in the tsunami-hit town on April 2, 2012. An estimated 800,000 people newly joined companies and government offices across Japan the same day, the first weekday of the country's new fiscal year.

E

Otsuchi at 2:46 p.m. on 1st anniversary

OTSUCHI, Japan - Participants of a memorial service for the victims of the massive tsunami that devastated Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, observe a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2012, the time the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, which triggered the gigantic wave, struck exactly a year ago.

E

Otsuchi soon after quake, now

TOKYO, Japan - Photos show an area in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 13, 2011 (top), shortly after the area was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the same location on March 1, 2012 (bottom).

E

Otsuchi soon after quake, now

TOKYO, Japan - Photos show a commercial facility in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 13, 2011 (top), shortly after the area was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the same facility on March 4, 2012 (bottom). It resumed operation in late 2011.

E

Otsuchi soon after quake, now

TOKYO, Japan - Photos show an area in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 14, 2011 (top), shortly after the area was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the same location on March 1, 2012 (bottom).

E

Otsuchi soon after quake, now

TOKYO, Japan - Photos show an area in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on March 13, 2011 (top), shortly after the area was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the same location on March 1, 2012 (bottom).

E

Temporary shopping center in Iwate Pref.

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan - People flock to a makeshift shopping center set up in a schoolyard in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Dec. 17, 2011. The shopping center opened the same day for people affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the area.

E

Disaster debris in Otsuchi

SENDAI, Japan - Debris from the massive March 11, 2011, tsunami is piled up on a beach in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, in northeastern Japan on Nov. 17, 2011.

E

Salmon, mackerel harvested in disaster-hit Otsuchi

OTSUCHI, Japan - People working at a fish market in the quake- and tsunami-hit town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, sort out harvested fish including salmon and mackerel on Nov. 7, 2011, as the market opened for business for the first time since the March 11 disaster devastated the area.

E

Astronaut Furukawa communicates with Tohoku children

OTSUCHI, Japan - An elementary school student (L) in the quake- and tsunami-hit town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, speaks with Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa aboard the International Space Station via radio on Oct. 15, 2011. Sixteen students from five elementary schools in the town participated in the event, chatting with the astronaut for about 10 minutes.

E

Quake-hit schools begin classes at temporary building

OTSUCHI, Japan - Photo taken on Sept. 20, 2011 shows paper cranes made and presented by elementary school children in Shizuoka Prefecture hanging outside a classroom of a temporary school building in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture. The building has been constructed for pupils and students of four elementary schools and a junior high school in the town that were put out of use by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

E

6 months after Japan quake, tsunami

OTSUCHI, Japan - Photos of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, (from top) on April 6, June 3 and Sept. 1, 2011, show that the sightseeing tour vessel Hamayuri, left atop an inn by the March 11 tsunami, has been removed.

E

New mayor of tsunami-hit Otsuchi

OTSUCHI, Japan - Yutaka Ikarigawa (C) shakes hands with a supporter after winning the mayoral election in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, on Aug. 28, 2011. The election was held to fill the vacancy left by the death of Mayor Koki Kato, who was killed in the March earthquake and tsunami.