NHK WORLD-JAPAN Presents “3.11 – Ten Years On,” a Collection of New and Encore Programs to Commemorate 10-Year Anniversary of the Largest Earthquake Ever Recorded in Japan

TOKYO, JAPAN – Media
OutReach – 5 March 2021 – NHK
WORLD-JAPAN, the English-language international service of Japan’s sole public
broadcaster, NHK, today announced it will
present a collection of premiere and encore programming to mark the 10-year
anniversary the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, which spurred a
tsunami, a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and mass
destruction along Japan’s east coast. The programming event airs throughout
March and April. Descriptions of all
programs in “3.11 — 10 Years On”, including multilingual videos (Burmese, Chinese,
Indonesian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese) are available on this special web page

One of the highlights is
the international TV premiere of Ken Watanabe – A Copassionate View: The Decade Since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Japanese Hollywood star
Ken Watanabe (“Last Samurai”, “Batman Begins”,
“Godzilla”, “Transformers”) raised international attention
for the disaster and has listened to the stories of more than 20,000 people in
the past decade. The documentary follows the actor as he visits the communities
most affected by the disaster and gets to know its victims. The program
airs Saturday, March 6. (UTC)

Another
international TV premiere, Generation March 11: Their 10 Years Journey, tells the
stories and follows the progress of the lives of children born in the disaster
areas. Part of the anniversary programming is also a new documentary on one of
Japan’s most prolific and award-winning stop-motion animation artists, Tomoyasu
Murata, and his work commemorating the victims of the disaster, broadcast as a
special edition of the Anime Supernova series.

 Among the encore programs marking the 10-year
anniversary of the disaster is 3/11-The Tsunami,
a two-part documentary that made
its international broadcast premiere in January 2021. (Thai subtitles available.) (Indonesian subtitles available.) The series combines footage
from NHK camera crews with mobile phone and other video captured by citizens
who were on scene during and after the earthquake and tsunami, and the
country’s recovery efforts of the following year.