Japanese Prime
Minister Naoto Kan visited the quake-hit areas Saturday and encouraged the Self-
Defense Forces members and other workers trying to contain the nuclear crisis
after the tsunami.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan (C) inspects the tsunami destroyed areas in Rikuzentakata city, Iwate prefecture, Japan, on April 2, 2011. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

Kan flew on an SDF
helicopter to Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture, a city devastated by the great
March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, and met with evacuees there.

“We will do the best we
can to set up temporary shelter,” Kan told local evacuees in Rikuzentakata.

The Prime Minister then
flew to an operation base in 20 km from the Fukushima Daiichi power station and
encouraged the workers there to work hard.

“I want you to work with
the belief that you can never lose the battle,” Kan told the workers and
officers.

During his one-day trip,
Kan was also briefed by Rikuzentakata Mayor Futoshi Toba and Iwate Gov. Takuya
Tasso at the makeshift city hall building about the current condition of the
devastated areas, and the three discussed how to go forward with reconstruction
efforts.

This is his second
inspection of areas stricken by the quake and tsunami, and the nuclear crisis at
the plant crippled by the disaster.

Kan’s earlier schedule to
visit evacuees in another heavily affected city of Ishinomaki, Miyagi
Prefecture, on March 21 was canceled at the last minute due to poor weather.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet