Japan marks tsunami tragedy

Painful memories: Candles being placed to form the date of March 11, 2011

TOKYO: People around Japan prayed for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami on the fifth anniversary of the 2011 disaster that caused unprecedented damage to the nation.

The government held a memorial ceremony on Friday afternoon at the National Theatre in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, with attendance of the Imperial couple. Similar ceremonies were also held in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, whose coastal areas were devastated by the colossal tsunami following the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that happened in seas off the Sanriku coast.