90,000 homeless in Japan after quake

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 Agency said on Saturday 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, DPA reported.

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.

The two natural disasters also triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear crises with radiation leaks at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan is under fire over his handling of the disaster and the subsequent nuclear crisis.

Locals accuse the government of responding too slowly to the crisis.