A daily newspaper in Iwate Prefecture on Monday issued extra editions in Tokyo and elsewhere to express appreciation for nationwide relief efforts and to report on the progress being made on reconstruction.
Iwate Nippo's special edition, featuring stories in Japanese and English about foreigners who lent support, was also distributed at Narita airport, its publisher said.
"It's our duty to show our gratitude for the support and to report on progress. We'll continue issuing extras (on disaster-related news) for at least 10 years," editor-in-chief Chimao Azumane told reporters near Shinbashi Station in central Tokyo, one of the places where extras were being handed out.
Readers also received extras in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, which invited high-school students from Iwate to take school trips following the disasters.
In Miyagi Prefecture, the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, which made headlines by posting handwritten stories on building walls after losing power to the quake and tsunami, published free papers with articles contributed by children in cooperation with Sendai-based nonprofit group Kids Media Station.
The newspaper handed out some 20,000 copies at events and as inserts in the daily.
The free paper is being helped by the Kanagawa Shimbun, a regional daily based in Kanagawa Prefecture that became involved in the free paper project after reporting on the Miyagi youths' articles.