Japan is preparing to mark the third anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami off the country's northeast coast which claimed some 16-thousand lives in 2011.

Currently, there are over 2600 people still officially listed as missing.

Jordan Lee has more.

Reporter:

Yasuo Takamatsu, a 57-year-old bus driver, is learning how to dive in order to search the seabed for any sign of his missing wife.

His wife, Yuko, was at her office at a local bank when the earthquake struck in 2011.

Of the 13 people who managed to escape onto the roof of the two-storey building that day, only one survived.

Of the remaining 12, only four bodies have been found.

Takamatsu says he received one last message from his wife before she disappeared.

"She wrote, 'I want to go home.' Because I know that, that she feels that way, I wanted to look for her."

During the days following the earthquake, Takamatsu looked for Yuko at evacuation centres, hoping she'd still be alive.

He then searched the coastline for clues.

But it wasn't until two months after the quake that he began visiting mortuaries.

Though police and the coast guard continue regular searches for the missing, finding them remains a daunting task, given the vast coastline.

Takamatsu asked the Japanese coast guard to search for his wife last autumn, but three searches have yielded no clues to her whereabouts.

He then started to learn diving so he can look for his missing wife himself.

He eventually received his diving license in December, but is still struggling to keep his balance underwater.

It will take many more dives before Takamatsu will be experienced enough to take part in underwater searches for his wife, but he says it is a start.

"Of course, I hope her body would show up. I suppose it would be her remains by now. I hope I could find something, even a small piece."

His dive instructor Masayoshi Takahashi, along with a group of volunteer divers, have been searching underwater at least twice a month, looking for remains and personal belongings.

"Last month, we found driving licenses, and two identity cards, so we're still finding things. I think there is still a chance we could find something more. We've also found bones."

A magnitude 9.0-earthquake struck off Japan's northeast coast in the mid-afternoon on Friday, March 11th, 2011, sending walls of water upwards of 40-meters high in certain cases, leaving close to 16-thousand dead, and tens of thousands of others homeless.