Country marks fourth anniversary of quake-tsunami

Japan marked the fourth anniversary on Wednesday of the quake-tsunami disaster that swept away thousands of people and sparked a nuclear crisis, a tragedy that has left visible scars on the landscape and continues to wreak misery for many.

Remembrance ceremonies were being held in towns and cities around the disaster zone and in Tokyo, where Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko are to lead tributes to those who died in Japan's worst peacetime disaster.

Television footage showed victims and volunteers joining their hands in prayer near the shell of a tsunami-hit building in the northeastern port town of Minamisanriku, one of the many stark reminders of the destruction.