People present flowers to victims during a memorial service to mark the first anniversary of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, on March 11, 2012. (Xinhua/Kenichiro Seki)

At 14:46 p.m. (GMT 0546) on Sunday Japan came to a standstill to observe a moment's silence for the nearly 16,000 lives lost when at exactly this time a year ago a massive earthquake struck the northeast coast, triggering a killer tsunami that devoured lives and coastal infrastructure.

But as the nation mourns and resolves to look to the future and not the past, reminders will be around for decades to come making such forward-thinking difficult as the massive reconstruction effort, with 246 billion U.S. dollars earmarked over the next ten years, has gotten off to an erratic start.

HANG FIRE

The reason being is that that many local municipalities are still debating and finalizing reconstruction plans, which in the case of some northeasterly towns and villages, aim to see houses, shops and schools completely rebuilt on higher land, meaning some fairly heavy-duty town planning.

Well-publicized bureaucratic wrangling with local and central governments has also delayed some of these projects and communication problems and ideological differences between prefectural officials and those who hold the purse strings in Tokyo, has also stalled reconstruction plans that should have been kick-started months ago.

The government has unrolled a number of supplementary budgets and a significant amount of money has been earmarked for reconstruction initiatives and, compared to a year ago, the nation, as a whole has seen significant improvements made.

However, many observers maintain that more progress should have been made by now and local municipalities have been focusing too much on strategic rhetoric and not enough on basic fundamentals.

The port city of Ishonomaki is widely regarded as being the worst hit region following the 2011 Tohoku quake. The small city known for its fishing and rice industries was pummeled by at least two tsunamis of more than 10 meters in height and the solid walls of water ran inland up to 4 kilometers, wrecking 80 percent of the city's homes and leaving more than half of the city under water, sludge and mire.

"A year after the quake and tsunami hit and some places like Ishonomaki still look war-torn," said Japan affairs commentator Koichi Ishikawa.

"Essentially the clean-up phase of the reconstruction has been completed, but the debris has been left piled up on the outskirts of the town like garbage mountains and it does very little to inspire the residents to want to remain there, or to promote local commerce," Ishikawa said.

Ishikawa went on to say that many of the city's residents are still living in makeshift accommodation and despite the fact that the local government has tried to lure new businesses to the area in the field of clean energy, by offering sizable tax reductions and other subsidies, local opinion is that it will take decades for the city to regain any kind of semblance of its former coastal glory.

The tsunami saw an exodus of 6,000 people from the region and left almost 7,000 in prefabricated accommodation -- those with no heating have been dubbed "rabbit huts" by locals and the media alike and the unsanitary conditions have seen many inhabitants relocate to alternative accommodation, including with relatives and friends in other parts of Japan.

But while many residents have turned their back on Ishonomaki due to the level of devastation and the painful memories of so many lives lost, others believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and what may appear to be endless bureaucratic procrastinating over rebuilding schemes and delays in public spending, will actually, in the end, pay dividends.

Such is the mantra being sung by Tadateru Konoe, president of the Japan Red Cross Society. He conceded that the differing opinions between local, central governments and local residents have created delays in essential rebuilding projects and ongoing quarreling has meant that no agreements have been reached.

But he also said that the process of rebuilding is not a simple one. It's not just a case of replacing destroyed buildings and homes with new ones, it's a case of reconstructing a city that is better in all respects than what was there before and to achieve this takes time and exhaustive discourse.

SHOT IN THE ARM

Ishonomaki, which happens to be the home town of Finance Minister Jun Azumi, although an extreme example, is characteristic of how public works projects all over the nation have failed to be completed due to protracted bureaucratic squabbling and a lack of skilled laborers, partly due to a decade of cuts aimed at reining in Japan's burgeoning public debt at more than twice the size of its economy and the largest in the develop world.

In addition to existing spending cuts on public works projects, skilled laborers essential to the nation's reconstruction projects, have seen payrolls reduced by 1.6 million to 4.98 million in the fiscal year through March 2011, according to the latest data from the labor ministry.

Such a quandary could have serious ramifications on the entire economy, according to some observers, as the nation is relying on reconstruction projects to kick start Japan's ailing economy and help chip away at the country's monumental debt burden.

"Japan's economy is relying on all of these reconstruction projects to boost this year's economic growth by a projected 1 percent, which would be a massive shot in the arm for this country still reeling under a strong yen and unable to wriggle free from the shackles of decades of deflation," said Laurent Sinclair, a pacific affairs research analyst.

Azumi himself seems somewhat optimistic about the road ahead and was quoted recently as saying he believes that the economy will show a significant uptick around spring time this year, as exporters begin to regain traction, as the eurozone crisis has largely been accounted for and as reconstruction projects start to pay off.

Sinclair however points out however that the fact of the matter is that nearly half of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's 246 billion- U.S. dollar-reconstruction fund, amassed through three supplementary budgets, has yet to be allocated and attached to specific projects and the longer these public works projects are delayed, the less impact they will have on helping the economy.

"In some respects Japan is facing another triple disaster," said Sinclair. "A significant delay in public works projects will diminish the immediate and much-needed economic benefits and a lack of skilled laborers which in turn pushes up the prices of these projects to begin with."

"For the past 10 years or so, public works spending has been somewhat of a taboo topic, but this government ideology needs to be reversed for the sake of the economy. It's time to spend and spend big and fast," he said.

Japan remembers its day of sorrow

Time may be the great healer but for the people of Japan a year is too short a span to ease the pain and suffering.

Japan on Sunday solemnly marked one year since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the country unleashing a tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people and triggered an enduring nuclear crisis. The quake was the most powerful in Japan since records began.

A mother and daughter attend a vigil on Sunday in Fukushima, Japan, which was hit by the deadly tsunami last year. [Cui Meng / China Daily]

Brothers Taketo Endo (right), 12, and Haruto, 10, pray for their parents on Sunday who were killed in the tsunami in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture. Sunday marked the first anniversary of the quake and tsunami that killed thousands of people and set off a nuclear crisis. [Kim Kyung-hoon / Reuters]

Recovery slowed by shortages

As Japan struggles with reconstruction efforts, the earthquake-stricken areas are still reeling from a lack of funding and human resources for the recovery.

The most notable challenge for the disaster-hit area is a lack of human resources, Takuya Tasso, governor of Iwate, the second-largest prefecture of Japan, said in an exclusive interview with China Daily ahead of the first anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.

Concerns over radiation remain

One year after the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, a coastal prefecture in northeastern Japan, concerns still remain globally and nationally over radiation.

The accident occurred after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011, triggered a tsunami, flooding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Cooling devices inside the plant malfunctioned, causing the meltdown.