Tag: Japan

ISHINOMAKI - Prime Minister Naoto Kan promised Sunday he would "never abandon" survivors of Japan's tsunami as he tried to focus attention on the future, despite a high-stakes battle at a nuclear plant. Kan, on only his second trip to the disaster zone in the month since the March 11 tragedy, said the government would "work as fast as possible" to house 150,000 people living in emergency shelters since the disaster struck.
Speaking to survivors in Ishinomaki city, a major fishing

TEHRAN - Iran can "easily" help Japan in dealing with a crippled nuclear power plant which was damaged in the aftermath of a March 11 tsunami, a top Iranian atomic scientist was quoted as saying on Saturday.
"Iran is one of the nations which under the current circumstances can help Japan with the damage in the Fukushima (Daiichi) nuclear plant," Mahmoud Reza Aghamiri, Iran's newly appointed representative to the Middle East's SESAME nuclear project, was quoted as saying by the

ISLAMABAD - The Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Saleem H Mandviwalla urged the Government of Japan to place Pakistan in the relocation plan for the Japanese industry along the lines of plans for ASEAN countries, particularly Thailand.
He stated this during at a meeting held for the improvement of the investment policy with JICA Advisor. It was attended by the acting Japanese Ambassador Jota Yamamota. BoI secretary said that Yamamoto had agreed to present Pakistan's case to his

BEIJING - China on Friday expressed concern over the release of radioactive water from Japan's crippled nuclear power plant and urged its neighbour to protect the marine environment.
"As a neighbour of Japan's, it is natural for us to express concern," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement published on his ministry's website.
"We hope Japan acts in line with international laws and takes effective steps to protect the marine environment."

TOKYO - A strong earthquake measuring 7.4 on the Richter scale shook northeast and eastern Japan late on Thursday, and a tsunami warning was issued for the northeastern coast of Japan, an area badly hit by the March 11 earthquake.
Japan's NHK public television repeatedly said those in areas where the tsunami warnings were issued should evacuate to higher ground. However, the warning was withdrawn after some time.

TOKYO - Japan said Thursday it is considering expanding the area covered by a compulsory evacuation order, with no immediate end in sight to the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
As emergency workers began pumping nitrogen into the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant to prevent further explosions, the government said it was seeking advice from experts on whether more areas should be evacuated. Residents within a 20-kilometre (12-mile) radius of the nuclear power

TOKYO - Workers at Japan's crippled atomic power plant on Wednesday plugged a hole spewing highly radioactive water into the ocean, boosting efforts to contain the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
But in an illustration of how fragile progress is at the Fukushima plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power said it was concerned a build-up of hydrogen gas at a different reactor could cause another explosion at the site. The water leak was thought to be a source of spiking

TOKYO - An accidental leak of highly radioactive water into the ocean from a Japanese nuclear plant was stopped Wednesday, boosting efforts to contain the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl 25 years ago.
The leak was thought to be a source of spiking radiation levels in the sea, which prompted Japan to announce its first seafood radiation safety standards following the discovery of fish with elevated contamination. To stop the long-running leak from the Fukushima plant on the

TOKYO - The operator of Japan's crippled nuclear power plant said on Tuesday it had found water with 5 million times the legal limit of radioactivity as it struggles for a fourth week to contain the world's biggest nuclear disaster in quarter of a century.
Underlining the concern over spreading radiation, the government said it was considering imposing radioactivity restrictions on seafood for the first time in the crisis after contaminated fish were found in seas well south of

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani Monday said the government to government and the people to people level ties between Pakistan and Japan would greatly help building a partnership between two countries in various areas. He said this while talking to the outgoing Japanese Ambassador Chihiro Atsumi.
Gilani said that high level visits and exchange of parliamentary delegations may help in strengthening the people to people relationship. Referring to the potential of trade

OFUNATO - Japan on Monday started to dump more than 10,000 tons of low-level radioactive water into the Pacific as part of emergency operations to stabilise its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The last-resort measure came after the Bank of Japan said business confidence had plummeted since the earthquake and tsunami hit on March 11, plunging the country into its worst crisis since World War II. The UN atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano, meanwhile, said that the

SENDAI - Workers at Japan's crippled nuclear plant Sunday struggled to stop a radioactive water leak into the Pacific, as the government warned the facility may spread contamination for months.
Along the tsunami-ravaged coast, 25,000 Japanese and US military and rescue crew completed a massive three-day search for bodies, more than three weeks after the catastrophe struck. While cherry blossoms opened in Tokyo, temperatures plunged again, leaving tens of thousands of homeless

TOKYO - Japan's government warned on Sunday it may take months to stop radiation leaking from a nuclear plant crippled by a huge earthquake and tsunami three weeks ago, as more bodies were recovered in devastated areas of northeast Japan.
An aide to embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the government's priority was to stop radiation leaks which were scaring the public and hindering work on cooling overheated nuclear fuel rods.
"We have not escaped from a crisis

TOKYO - Japan's prime minister made his first visit to the country's tsunami-devastated region on Saturday as officials grappling to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl said they may have discovered why radiation has been leaking into the sea. Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it had found a crack in a concrete pit that was leaking water at its No.2 reactor in Fukushima, measuring 1,000 millisieverts of radiation per hour. "With radiation levels rising in the seawater near

TOKYO - The National Police Agency said on Saturday that the catastrophic earthquake and ensuing tsunami have left 11,800 people dead and 15,540 others unaccounted for in Japan by 10:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT).
The search for the missing by Japan and U.S. forces will end on Sunday and the country will shift its focus to a daunting reconstruction effort.
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific coastal areas of northeastern and eastern Japan on March 11, triggering

TOKYO - The National Police Agency said the catastrophic earthquake and ensuing tsunami have left 11,578 people dead and 16,451 others unaccounted for in Japan by 10:00 a. m. local time (0100 GMT) Friday.
A 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific coastal areas of northeastern and eastern Japan on March 11, triggering enormous tsunami.
Heavy casualties and extensive damage have been caused by the twin disasters.

TOKYO - A 6.2-magnitude earthquake hit Thursday in an area of northeastern Japan jolted by a massive quake and tsunami disaster earlier this month, the US Geological Survey said.
The quake struck at 4:15 pm (0715 GMT) about 417 kilometres (259 miles) northeast of Tokyo, at a depth of 39.6 kilometers (24.6 miles), the USGS said.
The epicentre was off the coast of Miyagi prefecture, where a huge tsunami swept away houses and thousands of people on March 11.
No tsunami