Former Dunedin resident Russell Duff is "numbed and sickened" by television images showing extensive tsunami damage in plains north of Tokyo after Friday's massive earthquake near Japan.
Mr Duff (63) served as president of the Dunedin-Otaru Sister City Society for 20 years after its inception in 1986, and has visited Japan many times since his first visit in 1972.
"It's pretty numbing really," he said as he tried to come to grips with the scale of the devastation.
"It's a bit like watching the Twin Towers [the US World Trade Centre destroyed in a terrorist attack in September 2001]. You have to try and absorb it."
Dunedin's Japanese sister city Otaru had escaped any serious damage, but there had been "massive devastation" elsewhere, given that much of Japan's population was concentrated in low-lying areas near the sea.
Mr Duff, who now lives in Wanaka, said that through his involvement with the travel industry and his sister city work he had made many friends in Japan over the years.
People he had since contacted were safe, but he remained concerned that many other Japanese people had not been so fortunate.
