A staff member mourns for the victims of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami during an online special memorial event at Hibiya Park in Tokyo Thursday, March 11, 2021. Japan on Thursday marked the 10th anniversary of the massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that struck Japan's northeastern coast. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





Yellow handkerchiefs bearing messages supporting people in areas hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami are hanged at Iwaki 3.11 Memorial and Revitalisation museum ahead of the ten years anniversary of the disaster in Iwaki, Japan, March 10, 2021. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)





People wearing protective masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus wait for a traffic light at an intersection Monday, March 1, 2021, in Tokyo. The Japanese capital confirmed more than 120 new coronavirus cases on Monday. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





A woman from Ofunato who lost her junior high school classmates in the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, calls her late friends inside Kaze-no-Denwa (the phone of the wind), a phone booth set up for people to call their deceased loved ones, at Bell Gardia Kujira-yama, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the disaster, in Otsuchi town, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan on February 28, 2021. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)





Fumio Ito, head of public relations at Minami Sanriku Hotel Kanyo, tells his experience of 2011 tsunami disaster in the area to participants inside a bus during the “Kataribe”, or “storytelling” bus tours in Minamisanriku, Miyagi prefecture, northern Japan, Saturday, March 6, 2021. Minami Sanriku Hotel Kanyo holds daily tours for their hotel guests and visitors, taking them for a bus ride around various landmarks throughout the town for an hour. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





A surfer walks off to the beach as Mount Fuji is viewed in the background Friday, February 19, 2021, in Fujisawa, west of Tokyo. (Photo by Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo)





An employee places goods of Pokemon video game characters on display at a Pokemon store in Tokyo on February 26, 2021. Twenty-five years after Pokemon first began delighting children and adults alike, the phenomenon is still capturing hearts, with smartphone craze Pokemon Go enjoying record success in virus-hit 2020. (Photo by Behrouz Mehri/AFP Photo)





A collapsed gate at a Buddhist temple sits in Futaba town, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan, Sunday, February 28, 2021. The temple is in the area that used to be designated as the nuclear disaster exclusion zone, but the part of the zone has been lifted since March 2020. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)





Police officers search for remains of those who went missing in the tsunami generated by the Great East Japan Earthquake 10 years ago, at the seashore in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi prefecture, northeastern Japan, 10 March 2021. Almost 16,000 people were killed and more than 2,500 are missing following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan on 11 March 2011. (Photo by JIJI Press/EPA/EFE)





Sakae Kato lies in bed next to Charm, a cat he rescued five years ago which is infected with feline leukemia virus, at his home in a restricted zone in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, February 20, 2021. Kato looks after 41 cats in his home and another empty building on his property. A decade ago, he stayed behind to rescue cats abandoned by neighbors fleeing the radiation clouds belching from the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant. He won't leave. “I want to make sure I am here to take care of the last one”, he said. “After that I want to die, whether that be a day or hour later”. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)





Cats that were rescued by Sakae Kato, rest in a cage at Kato's home, in a restricted zone in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, February 20, 2021. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)





Sakae Kato feeds wild boars in front of his home, in a restricted zone in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, February 20, 2021. A decade ago, Kato stayed behind to rescue cats abandoned by neighbours who fled the radiation clouds belching from the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant. He won't leave. “I don't want to leave, I like living in these mountains”, Kato said. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)





Sakae Kato plays with cats that he rescued, called Mokkun and Charm, who are both infected with feline leukemia virus, at his home, in a restricted zone in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, February 20, 2021. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)





A demonstrator holds a placard while taking part in a march to call for gender equality and protest against gender discrimination, marking the International Women's Day in Tokyo, Japan on March 8, 2021. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)





The skeleton of the tsunami-damaged disaster prevention headquarters where 43 workers died as the 2011 tsunami washed over it, is seen in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, Saturday, March 6, 2021. The three-story building is one of legacies that still stand in northern Japan's coastal towns, 10 years after the earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





A fence is placed at former Okawa Elementary School where 74 children from the elementary school lost their lives along with 10 teachers by a massive tsunami in 2011 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, Saturday, March 6, 2021. The disaster marks the 10th-year anniversary on March 11, 2021. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





A man and a woman walk near a replica of a lone pine tree that initially survived the 2011 tsunami that flattened the surrounding coastal forest, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan Thursday, March 4, 2021. The tree, which eventually died of seawater exposure, was known as the “Miracle Pine”, and townspeople treated, reinforced and then preserved it as a memorial and symbol of hope for the region. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)





Paper lanterns are lit for the victims of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake in Tokyo, Japan, 10 March 2021, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. More than 2000 candles with messages are displayed until 11 March 2021 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)





Mariko Odawara holds flowers as she prays to mourn the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands and triggered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, during its 10th anniversary, in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, Japan on March 11, 2021. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)