Human remains found in Japan identified as girl missing since 2011 earthquake and tsunami

Human remains found in Japan have been identified as those of a six-year-old girl missing since the massive earthquake and tsunami of 2011, police said Friday.

The disaster killed 15,900 people, with 2,520 people still listed as missing as of the end of February, according to the National Police Agency.

Teeth and fragments of jaw were discovered in February 2023 in the northern region of Miyagi, a spokesman for the local police told AFP. 

“After dental and DNA identification analyses, it was confirmed the remains belong to Natsuse Yamane, female, who was six years old at the time,” he said.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis and an examination of proteins on the teeth confirmed the girl’s identity, the Japan Times reported, citing the Miyagi police. Experts at Tohoku University assisted with the analysis, Japan Today reported.

The girl had been at her home in Yamada, a town around 60 miles away in Iwate Prefecture, when the tsunami swept her away, the police spokesman told AFP.

She had been listed as missing ever since.

The remains were found by construction workers sifting through material amassed in a clean-up of coastal areas, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

The child’s family issued a statement of thanks.

“We had long given up (on finding her remains), so when we were notified, it took us by surprise. We are very grateful,” Japan Today quoted the family as saying. 

The last time remains were identified in the three prefectures hardest hit by the disaster — Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima — was in August 2023, the Asahi said.  The unidentified remains of six other people are in the custody of authorities in the prefecture, Japan Today reported.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake in March 2011 also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in this century’s biggest atomic disaster.