Thursday marks the 10th anniversary of a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck east and northeast Japan, triggering a severe nuclear accident. People in the country are remembering the lives lost in the disaster.

The magnitude-9 quake generated tsunamis over 10 meters tall, causing the deaths of 15,900 people and leaving 2,525 missing. The government says as of Tuesday 3,775 others had died due to health problems or other complications related to the disaster.

March 11 marks 10 years since a massive earthquake and tsunami caused extensive damage to the Pacific coastal areas of eastern and northeastern Japan. An NHK survey of people affected by the disaster has shown that over half of the respondents think there has been little or no progress in reconstruction.

The survey was conducted in December and January. It targeted more than 4,000 people who were living in the three most severely-affected prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima at the time of the disaster. The poll drew responses from 1,805 people.

A musical band from a US airbase in Tokyo has held a concert to pray for recovery from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

The performance was given in the lobby of Sendai Airport in Miyagi Prefecture on Wednesday, the eve of the tenth anniversary of the March 11 disaster.

The head of the Japanese government's expert panel on the coronavirus has called for preparedness against mutant strains becoming the dominant cause of infections in the country and also called for stepping up monitoring of the variants.

Omi Shigeru spoke at a meeting of the Lower House Health, Labor and Welfare Committee on Wednesday.

Police in northeastern Japan have conducted another search for people who remain missing as the 10th anniversary of the devastating tsunami draws near.

On Wednesday, every police station in Miyagi Prefecture dispatched personnel to search operations in coastal areas. More than 200 officers took part.

The remains of a woman, who had been listed as missing since a tsunami hit northeastern Japan in March, 2011, were handed over to her son on the eve of the disaster's 10th anniversary.

The remains belong to Okuyama Natsuko. She was a 61-year-old resident of the Nobiru District of Higashimatsushima City in Miyagi Prefecture at the time of the disaster. Her son, Eiki, received the remains at a police station in the neighboring city of Ishinomaki on Wednesday.

The Japanese ambassador to the United Nations has suggested that the UN Security Council is preparing to issue a statement over ongoing violence in Myanmar.

Myanmar's security forces have repeatedly fired on demonstrators protesting a military coup, causing dozens of deaths.

Japan's health ministry says nine more women have experienced severe allergic symptoms after receiving a coronavirus vaccination.

The health ministry says medical institutions reported that female medical workers in their 20s to 50s experienced anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction.

Japan's health ministry says tests have found that variants of the coronavirus account for 4.5 percent of the recent cases in the country.

The ministry says preliminary figures from local governments show that 1,234 virus carriers took PCR tests for the variants in the week to February 28. That's about 17 percent of the nationwide new cases.

Japan's transport ministry says it will set up an office to integrate work being done on so-called flying vehicles.

The government aims to put next-generation air mobility into practical use in 2023.

Japanese Justice Minister Kamikawa Yoko says she has instructed an investigation into the recent death of a Sri Lankan woman while in custody at an immigration detention facility.

Kamikawa disclosed the information to reporters after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says it confirmed 290 new cases of the coronavirus in the capital on Tuesday.

The total number of people who have tested positive in Tokyo since the pandemic began now stands at 113,861.

The Japanese government has revised downward the country's GDP reading for the latest quarter.

The Cabinet Office says the economy grew at an annualized 11.7 percent in real terms from October to December. The preliminary figure announced last month was 12.7 percent. It was the second consecutive quarter of expansion.

Japan's Environment Ministry says about 75 percent of waste from decontamination work following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident has been transported to intermediate storage facilities.

The decontamination process in Fukushima Prefecture is expected to produce about 14-million cubic meters of waste such as soil, grass and plants. This excludes areas around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which are in principle off-limits.