Police and coast guardsmen conducted a massive search Friday of the Pacific coastline of the Tohoku region for people still listed as missing after the March 11, 2011, quake-tsunami disaster.
The full-scale search is the first this year in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. Officers looked for 2,485 people who remain unaccounted for since the natural disasters devastated the northeast.
About 140 personnel from the Japan Coast Guard took part in the search in Miyagi using patrol vessels and helicopters.
The search in Iwate Prefecture included digging up a beach in Rikuzentakata where human bones were found last month.
Some 400 police officers, coast guard officers and firefighters in Fukushima Prefecture are scheduled to conduct a similar search next Friday.