Church World Service (CWS) says Japan's domestic resources alone aren't sufficient to deal with the earthquake and tsunami that devastated its northeastern coast on March 11, and there are still thousands who haven't yet received assistance.
"Survivors I interviewed echo the same point, that relief efforts reported in the media are not consistently reaching them, which tells us there is a huge variation on where needs are somewhat being met and not being met at all," Takeshi Komino, CWS Asia/Pacific's head of emergencies, said in a statement.
Almost half of city centres in Iwate prefecture were destroyed by the tsunami, according to CWS. So far, there has been virtually no humanitarian coordination there, Komino reported, and distribution of relief items has stalled.
Over the weekend, at a school evacuation centre in Ishinomaki, Miyagi prefecture, survivor Hideaki Aonuma told the CWS team he had seen nothing indicating any future plans for the evacuees.
"Houses gone, jobs gone, families are scattered," another survivor said. "We don't know how long more we should stay here and where we should go next."
CWS is working with local partners in Japan to coordinate emergency relief for about 25,000 individuals sheltered at 100 evacuation sites in Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate, Ibaragi and Tochigi prefectures.
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