Suga vows to step up rebuilding of 2011 quake-hit northeastern Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday pledged to step up reconstruction of areas hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan in 2011. "The state would like to promote reconstruction with full responsibility," Suga told reporters during a visit to Fukushima Prefecture, one of the affected areas, ahead of the 10th anniversary Thursday of the March 11, 2011 disaster. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga (R) visits a robot development center in Minamisoma, a northeastern Japan city near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, on March 6, 2021, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the nuclear disaster. Fukushima Robot Test Field opened in 2020 to spur robot-related innovation in the prefecture hit by the nuclear disaster. (Pool photo) (Kyodo) ==Kyodo