Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday the government will aim to complete building and securing housing in fiscal 2020 for those forced to evacuate their homes due to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in two of the three hardest-hit prefectures in the northeast.

The government will do all it can to help those still unable to secure new homes to move out of temporary housing in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures by the end of March 2021, the prime minister said.

(Abe visits a seafood processing company in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture)
[Pool photo]

"Securing housing will be an important step toward reconstruction," Abe told reporters in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, where he visited to see progress in reconstruction from the magnitude-9.0 quake and tsunami disaster.

As of June, some 62,000 people were still unable to return to their homes and about 9,000 were living in temporary housing.

It is expected to take longer for evacuees in Fukushima Prefecture, where the disaster-struck Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is located, due to contamination caused by the nuclear catastrophe.