Tag: Japan

TOKYO - The levels of radioactive iodine found in seawater near Japan's stricken nuclear power plant was 4,385 times more than the legal limit on Thursday, the nuclear safety agency said.
The level was the highest recorded since the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that was triggered by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency Deputy Director-General Hidehiko Nishiyama told a news briefing.
He added that this did not present a health

TOKYO - Japan's trade ministry ordered nuclear power plant operators to take immediate steps to improve emergency preparedness and will review energy policies to promote renewable sources and ease power shortages as it grapples with a nuclear safety crisis.
The ministry said on Wednesday that nuclear plants would be required by mid-April to deploy back-up mobile power generators and fire trucks able to pump water, while beefing up training programmes and manuals, aiming to avoid

HONG KONG - The world's highest hotel opened its doors in Hong Kong on Tuesday, housed in the city's tallest skyscraper and offering unrivalled panoramic views of the world famous Victoria Harbour.
Towering some 490 metres (1,600 feet) above the bustling, chaotic streets of the Southern Chinese city, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel is making a grand comeback after temporarily closing in 2008.
Visitors peered out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the 118th floor of the International

TOKYO/SENDAI - Highly radioactive water has leaked from a reactor at Japan's crippled nuclear complex, the plant's operator said on Monday, while environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone. Reflecting growing unease about efforts to control the six-reactor Fukushima Daiichi complex, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) had appealed to French companies for help, the Kyodo news agency said. The plant, 240 km north of

A magnitude 6.5 earthquake jolted northern Japan on Monday, prompting officials to issue a tsunami warning that was later lifted. There were no reports of damage.
Japanese broadcaster NHK said a 50-cm tsunami wave had been expected to reach the shores of Miyagi prefecture, hit hard by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

TOKYO - Radioactivity levels are soaring in seawater near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan's nuclear safety agency said on Saturday, two weeks after the nuclear power plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Even as engineers tried to pump puddles of radioactive water from the power plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, the nuclear safety agency said tests on Friday showed radioactive iodine had spiked 1,250 times higher than normal in the seawater just

TOKYO - The National Police Agency said on Saturday that the catastrophic earthquake and ensuing tsunami have left 10,151 people dead and 17,053 others unaccounted for in Japan by 10:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT).
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.

LOS ANGELES - 'Rush Hour' star Jackie Chan is spearheading a charity concert to benefit Japan's earthquake and tsunami victims. The event, dubbed the "Love Without Borders 3/11 Candelight Gala," takes place April 1 at Hong Kong's Victoria Park and participants include singers such as Alan Tam, Shirley Kwan and Chinese-American rapper Jin. The group has recorded the song "Succumb Not to Sorrow" which is based on a Japanese poem and serves as the theme for the concert.

OSAKA - The death toll from a massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan's northeast coast topped 10,000 on Friday, two weeks after the disaster struck, the National Police Agency said.
There are fears of a much higher toll from the disaster, which flattened or erased entire towns along the Pacific coast of the country's main island of Honshu.
The agency -- which collects data from the prefectures affected -- said that 10,066 had been confirmed dead and 17,443

TOKYO - Countries across the world shunned Japanese food imports on Thursday as radioactive steam leaked from a disaster-struck nuclear plant, straining nerves in Tokyo. The grim toll of dead and missing from Japan's monster quake and tsunami on March 11 topped 26,000, as hundreds of thousands remained huddled in evacuation shelters and fears grew in the megacity of Tokyo over water safety. The damage to the Fukushima nuclear plant from the tectonic calamity and a series of explosions

TAIPEI - Taiwan on Thursday said it had found radioactive particles on a batch of clams imported from Japan amid growing anxiety about food safety.
The discovery came after Taiwan's Atomic Energy Council for the first time on Sunday found a shipment of fava beans from southern Japan had been slightly contaminated. The latest radiation was found on 12 kilograms (26.4 pounds) of geoduck, better known to locals as "elephant trunk clam."
The clams from Aichi prefecture, in

Gwen Stefani donated $1,000,000 on Wednesday to Save the Children's, Japan Earthquake-Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund, to help in the relief and recovery effort. "I've been inspired by Japan for many years and have a true love, appreciation and respect for the Japanese people and their culture," the singer said in a statement. "The disaster in Japan is beyond heartbreaking and I want to do anything I can to help.
I would never be able to make a gesture like this without the

TOKYO - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 hit northern Japan on Thursday, public broadcaster NHK said.

OSAKA - The government of Japan, on Wednesday, said the cost of rebuilding the country after its biggest recorded earthquake could be as much as 25 trillion yen ($309 billion) as a deepening radiation scare hit shares. In the biggest estimate so far, Japan put the cost of the earthquake-tsunami disaster at more than twice that inflicted by the 1995 Kobe quake. The World Bank has said Japan needs up to five years to rebuild.
Analysts warn, however, that the figure may increase the

TOKYO - Japan estimated the cost of the damage from its devastating earthquake and tsunami could top $300 billion as authorities in Tokyo warned that babies should not be given tap water because of radiation from a crippled nuclear plant. The first official estimate since the March 11 disaster covers damage to roads, homes, factories and infrastructure, and dwarfs losses from both the 1995 Kobe quake and Hurricane Katrina that swept through New Orleans in 2005, making it the world's

MOSCOW - A new drama film set in Chernobyl opens in Russian cinemas this week, recalling the trauma of the world's worst nuclear accident just ahead of the 25th anniversary of the catastrophe. The Russian film's release comes after the quake-damage to a nuclear power plant in Japan brought fears of a nuclear explosion on the scale of Chernobyl and suspicions of another Soviet-style cover-up by officials. The film, 'Innocent Saturday,' shows a junior party worker, Valera, learning of

VIENNA - Japan's nuclear situation is still very serious but there is no doubt the country will "effectively overcome" the crisis, the head of the UN atomic agency said on Monday.
Yukiya Amano, addressing an emergency meeting of the Vienna-based agency's 35-nation governing board, said he was starting to see some positive developments regarding the stricken nuclear power plant, 240 km north of Tokyo. "The crisis has still not been resolved and the situation at the Fukushima