Survivors' lives two months on

Survivors of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan say they still face difficulties in their daily lives 2 months on.

NHK surveyed 435 people living in evacuation centers and elsewhere in the hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.

More than 450,000 people were living in shelters just after the quake, but the number has now dropped to about 120,000. Many evacuees left the shelters saying they were tired of living in groups. Some facilities were closed or merged.

Asked what bothered them the most, 38 percent of those in the shelters cited a lack of privacy.

32 percent of the people living in their homes cited not being able to bathe and a lack of utilities as their main concern.

34 percent of those staying with relatives or living in apartments said the lack of access to information, including notices from their municipalities, is a problem.

One woman in Rikuzentakata city, Iwate Prefecture, said she is living at home because her father refused to stay in a shelter. She said the water and electricity are still off and that she can only bathe once every 4 or 5 days at facilities provided by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.