When northeastern Japan marks the 10th anniversary of the megaquake and tsunami that hit the region on March 11, 2011, triggering a subsequent nuclear disaster, actor Ken Watanabe, despite a decadelong effort to meet with survivors to offer solace and encouragement, doesn’t intend to be anywhere in sight.
But wherever he finds himself that day, when he says the spotlight should be on the victims, it will mark only a brief stepping back from what he has come to feel is a "lifetime’s work.”
In a recent interview, the 61-year-old star of Hollywood blockbusters such as “The Last Samurai” and “Inception” along with numerous domestic movies says he reckons he has “personally met and talked to several tens of thousands” of survivors across the region from the immediate aftermath of the disaster to the present day as they seek to rebuild their lives.