Power cuts return as Japan starts to bury its dead

Tokyo - Rolling black-outs affecting 10 million homes restarted on Tuesday in Japan following a three-day break as the death toll rose and some cities chose to bury their dead after crematoria ran out of fuel, media reports said.

The outages started around 9:20 am (0020 GMT) and were expected to last until 10 pm, the Kyodo News agency reported. Tokyo Electric Power Co said that demand would outstrip capacity as the working week started following a public holiday on Monday. Electricity supplies were affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami which put some nuclear power stations out of action.

A shortage of fuel affected efforts to dispose of bodies, forcing some crematoria - the usual method in Japan - to stop work. The government in Higashimatsushima city in Miyagi prefecture said it had bought land to bury up to 1 000 people. City Mayor Hideo Abe said the burials were a temporary solution and the bodies would be dug up and cremated within two years. Many other towns and cities in Miyagi prefecture, including the capital Sendai, were reportedly planning to bury bodies.

Total deaths in the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11 stood at 9 079 at 12 pm (0300 GMT), the National Police Agency said Tuesday.

Around 310,000 people were still living in shelters and 12,645 people were registered as missing, police said.

click to enlarge STRANDED: A mother comforts her sleeping son in their homemade sleeping space along the hallway at Saitama Super Arena, a temporary shelter in Saitama, north of Tokyo, Japan,. Thousands of residents from Fukushima evacuated their town as high levels of radiation continued to be a high risk from the quake-hit nuclear plant. © EPA/CHRISTOPHER JUE