Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday that preparations for restoration and reconstruction work have begun in disaster-hit areas and Japan will prevail over the hardships caused by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

He did not, however, offer an outlook on when the damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will be stabilized.

Kan Friday night marked three weeks since the deadly tsunami ripped up the northeast coast by naming the temblor that spawned it the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Dai-Shinsai).