Mystery woman donates ¥30 million inside paper bags

There have been reports of a mystery woman delivering paper bags stuffed with cash to the three prefectures most severely affected by the March 2011 disasters in northern Japan.

The woman, who is thought to be in her 60s, made three separate donations to prefectural offices in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima, which were battered by a magnitude 9.1 megaquake and subsequent tsunami on March 11, 2011.

When officials tried to give the lady a receipt she excused herself, saying she had to rush to catch a bus.

Some 18,000 people were killed during the disasters, and hundreds of thousands lost their homes. More than six years on, many remain in temporary housing as reconstruction efforts continue and the decommissioning of the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, which suffered multiple reactor meltdowns triggered by the tsunami, will take at least 35 years.