According to a tally by a local labor bureau, as of Wednesday, over 1,500 applications for workers' compensation have been filed over people who died or went missing at work during the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the three worst-hit prefectures.
Among them, approval has already been given for insurance benefits to be paid in 1,305 cases, equivalent to about one third of payments made nationwide in fiscal 2010, which ended March 31. The number of payments to be made is almost certain to become the largest ever for a single natural disaster in Japan.
This compares to the 67 cases of compensation payments made in the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake that devastated Kobe and its vicinity, and 10 cases following the 2004 quake that struck the Chuetsu area in Niigata Prefecture.
1,005 applications were made in Miyagi Prefecture, almost all by family members of workers who died or went missing in the tsunami, according to the Miyagi labor bureau . Also, 399 were filed in Iwate Prefecture and 131 in Fukushima Prefecture. Numbers are expected to rise further.
Once approved, the families will each receive a 3 million yen special payment, in addition to pension and other benefits.