Only a fifth of the planned seawalls have been constructed in northeastern areas devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, a Kyodo News survey has found.

The survey, conducted in January and February, asked prefectural, municipal and central governments about the status of construction as of Jan. 1.

The central government and local governments in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures plan to build 405 km (252 miles) of seawalls along the coast. But just 88 km, or 22 percent, had been completed by Jan. 1, while 263 km of walls were still under construction. Work had not even started on the other 54 km of walls.