Japan PM visit tsunami-devastated village, enters nuke

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan (R) bows as he speaks to tsunami victim Ryoko Otsubo during his visit to an evacuees shelter in Rikuzentakata, after the area was devastated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami April 2, 2011. Kan headed on Saturday to the disaster zone where workers are braving radiation from a crippled nuclear plant to battle the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl. Kan was due to visit a sports camp turned into a base for military, firefighters and engineers working inside an evacuation zone to cool the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi complex and contain contamination before Japan seeks a permanent solution.

Credit: Reuters/Damir Sagolj

By Kiyoshi Takenaka and Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO | Fri Apr 1, 2011 11:01pm EDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's prime minister made his first visit to the country's tsunami-devastated region on Saturday and entered a nuclear exclusion zone to meet workers grappling to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke with refugees living in a makeshift camp in the fishing village of Rikuzentakata, decimated by the tsunamis which struck on March 11 when Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake, leaving 28,000 dead and missing.
"It will be kind of a long battle, but the government will be working hard together with you until the end. I want everyone to do their best, too," Kan told one survivor in a school that was now an evacuation shelter.
Despite its tsunami-seawalls, Rikuzentaka was flattened into a wasteland of mud and debris and most of its 23,000 population killed or injured, many swept away by the waves.
"A person that used to have a house near the coast told me 'Where am I supposed to build a house after this?', so I encouraged this person and said the government will provide support until the end," Kan told reporters.
Unpopular and under pressure to quit or call a snap poll before the disaster, Kan has been criticized for his management of Japan's humanitarian and nuclear crisis and his leadership remains in question.
"There are some evacuation centers that lack electricity and water. There are people who can't even go look for the dead. I want him to pay attention to them," said Kazuo Sato, a 45-year-old fisherman.
Kan later entered the 20 km (12 mile) evacuation zone on Saturday and visited J-village just inside the zone, a sports facility serving as the headquarters for emergency teams trying to cool the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi plant.
ECONOMIC FALLOUT
After three weeks, operators of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are no closer to regaining control of the damaged reactors, as fuel rods remain overheated and high levels of radiation continue to flow into the sea.
Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), Asia's largest power company, has seen its shares lose 80 percent -- $32 billion in market value -- since the disaster.
Japan is facing a damages bill which may top $300 billion -- the world's biggest from a natural disaster.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday the Japanese economy would take a short-term hit and it could not rule out further intervention for the yen.
The IMF is set to cut its 2011 forecast for Japanese growth when it unveils updated figures on April 11 in its World Economic Outlook, said IMF Japan mission chief Mahmood Pradhan.
Japan's central bank is expected to revise down its economic assessment when it meets on April 6-7 in the wake of the crisi