Twenty percent of the families in Ishinomaki and the nearby town of Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, who refused to move after the March 2011 tsunami have members suffering from insomnia and other psychiatric problems, a survey says.
The problems were found by a local group that polled 2,850 of them. Most problems were mild, such as people expressing unhappiness. But 5 percent of those polled said some had suicidal tendencies or other grave symptoms.
The survey also found 22 percent had members who lacked close friends, highlighting the isolation.