Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Friday marks the fifth anniversary of the devastating natural disaster in northeastern Japan. Back on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 pm local time, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake ruptured and triggered a 23-foot tsunami, causing massive casualties and property losses. The deadly tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, making the quake the most catastrophic natural disaster ever in Japan's history. Statistics issued by the National Police Agency on Tuesday show that by the end of February 2016, the death toll in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures reached 15,827 and the number of missing 1,237. Over the past five years, the three prefectures have taken on positive signs of development, but the progress has been going slowly.

The disaster-hit areas have recovered to some extent over the past years. According to an Asahi Shimbun survey released early this month, 81.5 percent of 1,224 stricken companies in Iwate have reopened, and 56.1 percent have seen their revenue increase; in Miyagi, 82.4 percent of around 2,575 enterprises are back at work and 53.8 percent of them have experienced an increase in income. In Fukushima where 1,205 firms were affected, the figures stood at 39.6 percent for reopened businesses, of which 49.3 percent had seen profits rise.

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries claimed on March 1 that 74 percent of affected farmland has recovered. The East Japan Railway Company announced the next day that 44 percent of the railroad, estimated at 177 kilometers, running across Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima in the northeast, has reopened.

Nonetheless, public opinion in the earthquake-stricken areas tells another story.

An opinion survey jointly run by Asahi Shimbun and Fukushima Central Television reveals that 62 percent of Fukushima residents think the disaster areas have not recovered at all. 36 percent believe their hometown has resumed to some degree and only 1 percent of the respondents believe the recovery is significant.

Meanwhile, a nationwide poll by the Nikkei on February 28 shows 52 percent of those surveyed think the Japanese government has not been committed to reconstructing the disaster-hit areas.

These polls betray local residents' strong dissatisfaction with the status quo in the hapless northeastern region. In the three prefectures, 80,000 dwellers still live in contingency shelters and 1,782 orphans remained homeless as of September 2015. Nearly 220,000 people from disaster-hit areas live in makeshift houses in Saitama, Chiba and other prefectures, and have not yet returned home.

Among children aged between 3 to 5 years old in these areas, some 30 percent have developed post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. The proportion of students who play truant or skip school is much higher than the national average. A severe lack of caregivers has led to an increasing number of senior citizens dying alone in temporary housing.

Rumors that seafood, vegetable and fruit may be tainted by nuclear radiation have never ceased, resulting in a sales slump of farm and aquatic products as well as a sluggish tourist market despite the unique scenery of the northeastern region.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been to the three prefectures 28 times since he retook office in 2012. But these inspections tours have failed to shift local people's attitudes.

But the Abe government's perceived lack of commitment is only one problem. An aging Japanese society, a shortage of labor, a perennially floundering economy, the sclerosis of related policies and a declining manufacturing industry have also impeded the reconstruction endeavor.

The problems of the disaster-hit areas are much more intense forms of the woes that Japanese society as a whole is suffering.

ここで、五年前の東日本大震災で亡くなられた方々のご冥福をお祈り申し上げます。また、被災地が一日も早く復興するように心よりお祈り申し上げます。

The author is a PhD candidate at the Graduate School of Sociology at Toyo University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn