SENDAI (Kyodo) -- The number of deaths officially recognized as related to the March 2011 disaster, such as those resulting from the stresses of living in evacuation shelters, totaled 1,331 in five prefectures, exceeding the 921 recorded in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in January 1995, a Kyodo News survey found Friday.The total breaks down to 621 in Fukushima, 554 in Miyagi, 133 in Iwate, 22 in Ibaraki and one in Saitama, according to data collected by Kyodo from the five prefectural governments and municipal governments in the prefectures between February and March.
The total includes a large number of elderly people who died of aspiration pneumonia as well as sudden deaths and suicides. A man in Saitama died as a result of a power outage following the earthquake.
Local governments provide condolence money to bereaved relatives when deaths are recognized as disaster related. Read More
