Japan quake dead, missing nears 21,000: Police

The number of people confirmed dead or listed as missing in Japan nears 21,000.

OSAKA, JAPAN: The number of people confirmed dead or listed as missing in Japan neared 21,000 on Sunday, nine days after a massive earthquake and tsunami struck.

There were fears of a far higher death toll from the disaster that wiped out vast areas along the Pacific coast of northern Honshu island.

The national police agency said 8,199 people had been confirmed dead and 12,722 officially listed as missing, a total of 20,921, as of 3:00 pm (0600 GMT) Sunday as a result of the March 11 catastrophe.

Miyagi prefecture was worst hit, with a confirmed death toll of 4,882.

But Miyagi police chief Naoto Takeuchi told a Sunday task force meeting that the prefecture alone "will need to secure facilities to keep the bodies of more than 15,000 people," Jiji Press reported.

The municipal government of Ishinomaki city in Miyagi said on its website: "A final number of missing citizens in the city is expected to reach 10,000."

The second-worst hit prefecture was Iwate with 2,583 confirmed deaths, then Fukushima with 678 lives lost.

The March 11 quake has become Japan's deadliest natural disaster since the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed more than 142,000 people.

Some 360,000 people have been displaced from their homes and have taken shelter in evacuation facilities in 15 prefectures.

Japan govt spokesman signals Fukushima plant to be scrapped

Japan's top government spokesman on Sunday signalled that the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant at the centre of an ongoing crisis following a series of explosions would be scrapped.

The reactor cooling systems at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, located 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, were crippled by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that rocked Japan's northeast coast on March 11.

A series of explosions and fires followed. Crews and emergency personnel have since worked around the clock to try to bring the temperatures down to avert a potentially catastrophic meltdown.

"As the government has (nuclear energy) authorities, it's difficult for me to say anything definite before following the appropriate procedures," the spokesman, Yukio Edano, told reporters.

"Looking at the plant from an objective point of view, I think it's clear in a way if the Fukushima Daiichi (No. 1) plant is in a state of being able to function or not," he said.

"I hope you can get it from the way I said it."