Overview
- Nationwide memorials included a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m., with official figures listing 15,901 dead, 2,519 missing and about 26,000 people still displaced.
- The government has spent roughly ¥42 trillion on recovery to date, is scaling back efforts in Iwate and Miyagi, and will concentrate the next five-year phase on Fukushima.
- TEPCO still targets completing decommissioning by 2051 but has delayed full‑scale removal of melted fuel debris to fiscal 2037 or later after retrieving only tiny samples so far.
- An estimated 880 tons of fuel debris remain inside Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors 1–3, with a robot‑arm trial for a third test retrieval planned for this fall.
- Roughly 14 million cubic meters of treated soil from decontamination remain in storage with final disposal unresolved before the March 2045 legal deadline, and Fukushima’s governor pressed Tokyo to present a concrete plan.