13 June,2011 08:02 AM IST | | Agencies
Tens of thousands of people are still living in shelters in Japan, three months after a powerful earthquake and the ensuing tsunami devastated the country's northeastern coast.
The National Police Agencysaid yesterday that over 90,000 people remain displaced in Japan as a result of the twin disasters in March.
The agency put the quake and tsunami's death toll at more than 15,000 people while 8,000 others are missing as a result of the double catastrophe.
The government plans to build a total of 52,000 temporary homes for the evacuees, but only about
28,000 of the homes have been completed.
Many evacuees have declined to move into temporary housing, citing insufficient support services compared to those at shelters.
One of the reasons for the slow progress has been the massive amount of debris that needs to be cleared in the disaster-hit areas.
Japan was hit by a powerful magnitude-9 earthquake followed by a massive tsunami on March 11.
