Japan's efforts to rebuild tsunami hit areas have been slow 11 March 2013 Last updated at 02:40 Help It has been two years since an earthquake and tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people in Japan and triggered a major nuclear crisis at the Fukushima power plant. The Japanese government is spending 19 trillion yen ($200bn; £130bn) to rebuild the northeast of the country over five years. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who came to power in December, has suggested expanding the spending plan further. But late last year, the government was criticised for spending a quarter of the fund on unrelated projects such as support for whaling research. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, told Asia Business Report that reconstruction work has been extremely slow.