Japan on Monday marked 13 years since a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck the country's northeastern Tohoku region and resulted in the loss of over 22,000 people, triggering the world's worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl crisis.
While recovery in areas hardest hit by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami has progressed in the ensuing years, life has yet to return to normal for the nearly 29,000 still displaced as of Feb. 1, with cleanup efforts at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear complex expected to span decades.
The central government stopped hosting memorial services in Tokyo in 2022, with municipalities in the affected areas now holding annual events on a smaller scale and participants offering silent prayers to the disaster victims at 2:46 p.m., the exact time when the earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.