Japan’s PM vows not to abandon tsunami survivors

PRIME Minister Naoto Kan promised yesterday he would “never abandon” survivors of Japan’s tsunami as he tried to focus attention on the future, despite a high-stakes battle at a nuclear plant.

Kan, on only his second trip to the disaster zone in the month since the March 11 tragedy, said the government would “work as fast as possible” to house 150,000 people living in emergency shelters since the disaster struck.

Speaking to survivors in Ishinomaki city, a major fishing hub in the worst-hit northeast of the country, the prime minister said the government would do all it could to ensure fishing “can be resumed as soon as possible”.