Tokyo

Japan, China, South Korea hold summit in Tokyo

Tokyo: The leaders of China and South Korea agreed on Sunday to bolster efforts to aid Japan's disaster recovery as they met with the Japanese prime minister to smooth over differences on Tokyo's handling of its post-tsunami nuclear crisis. Prime Minister Naoto Kan hosted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Sunday's summit. Japan hoped the meeting would present a unified front after Beijing and Seoul...  

Japan quake reconstruction to cost $ 184 bn

Tokyo: Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano said on Sunday the government may need to spend 10 trillion yen to 15 trillion yen ($184 billion) for reconstruction from the devastating earthquake that hit the country's northeast in March. The government may need to issue bonds to meet the costs but should not do so without coming up with ways to pay for redemption, Yosano said, signalling that some form of tax...  

President of Japan's TEPCO resigning: report

Tokyo: The utility behind the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl is almost certain to report massive losses on Friday, as expectations grow for its president to step down in disgrace. Japanese media reports said Tokyo Electric Power Co President Masataka Shimizu will resign to take responsibility for the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power complex in northeastern Japan. It is common for executives at major Japanese companies to...  

Worker at Japan's tsunami-hit plant dies

Tokyo: The operator of Japan's tsunami-wrecked nuclear power plant says a contract worker in his sixties has died after collapsing at the facility's waste disposal building. Tokyo Electric Power Co spokesman Naoyuki Matsumoto says the man was carrying equipment at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant when he collapsed on Saturday. Matsumoto says they do not know the cause of the worker's death. He says no radioactivity at harmful levels was...  

Japan to 3 reactors closed while seawall built

Tokyo: Japan urged a power company on Friday to suspend all three reactors at a coastal nuclear plant while a seawall and other structures are built to ensure a major earthquake or tsunami does not cause a second radiation crisis. The move came as the government is conducting a safety review of all Japan's 54 nuclear plants after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant was crippled by the March 11 earthquake...  

Another quake rattles tsunami-ravaged Japan

Tokyo: Japan was rattled by a magnitude-7.4 aftershock on Thursday night nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast. The strongest aftershock since the day of the magnitude-9.0 megaquake was a fresh blow to victims of that March 11 quake and subsequent tsunami that killed some 25,000 people, tore apart hundreds of thousands of homes and has sparked an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power...  

Japan: Radioactive leak minimised from N-plant

Almost after a month, the situation finally looks under control at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. ...

Japan PM visits tsunami-devastated village

Tokyo: Japan's prime minister made his first visit to the country's tsunami-devastated region on Saturday and entered a nuclear exclusion zone to meet workers grappling to end the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. Prime Minister Naoto Kan spoke with refugees living in a makeshift camp in the fishing village of Rikuzentakata, decimated by the tsunamis which struck on March 11 when Japan was rocked by a massive earthquake, leaving 28,000...  

US rushes freshwater to help Japan N-plant

Sendai: US naval barges loaded with freshwater sped toward Japan's overheated nuclear plant to help workers who scrambled on Saturday to stem a worrying rise in radioactivity and remove dangerously contaminated water from the facility. Workers at the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi plant have been pumping seawater in a frantic bid to stabilize reactors overheating since a tsunami knocked out the complex's crucial cooling system March 11. Plant operator Tokyo Electric...  

Japan: radiation levels at N-plant raise worry

Tokyo: Highly radioactive water has been found at a second reactor at a crippled nuclear power station in Japan, the plant's operator said, as fears of contamination escalated two weeks after a huge earthquake and tsunami battered the complex. Underscoring growing international concern about nuclear power raised by the accident in northeast Japan, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement it was time to reassess the international nuclear safety...  

Japan PM calls situation at N-plant very grave

Tokyo/Fukushima: Japan's nuclear crisis deepened further on Friday, with authorities saying that a reactor vessel at the crippled Fukushima atomic plant may have been damaged as some workers were exposed to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than normal, prompting Premier Naoto Kan to term the situation as "very grave". The radiation leak detected on Thursday at the No.3 reactor indicated possible damage to the unit's vessel, pipes or valves, Japan's...  

Radiation injuries slow work at Japan's N-plant

Tokyo: Radiation injuries to three workers complicated the battle to control Japan's crippled nuclear plant on Friday and heightened global anxiety over the worst atomic crisis in 25 years. Hailed by Japanese as anonymous heroes braving unknown dangers, about 300 engineers have been working around the clock to stabilise the six-reactor Fukushima complex since an earthquake and tsunami struck two weeks ago. But they had to pull out of some...  

Anxiety in Tokyo over radiation in tap water

Tokyo: Anxiety over Japan's food and water supplies soared following warnings about radiation leaking from Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear power plant into Tokyo's tap water at levels unsafe for babies over the long term. Residents cleared store shelves of bottled water after Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said that levels of radioactive iodine in tap water were more than twice what is considered safe for babies. Officials begged those in the city...  

Japan: quake damage reaching up to $ 300 bn

Tokyo: The Japanese government expects total damage from a devastating earthquake that hit northeast Japan this month to reach 15 trillion to 25 trillion yen ($185-308 billion), the Nikkei newspaper reported on Wednesday. Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano will present the estimate to a meeting of cabinet ministers to be held on Wednesday, the Nikkei said, without citing sources. That will far exceed the 10 trillion yen in damages from the...  

Rajinikanth pledges to help Japan quake victims

Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth attended a condolence meeting in Chennai, on Monday to pay homage to the victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami. ...

Japan quake: no proper funeral for the dead

The official death toll of the Japan earthquake and tsunami has crossed 8,800 and 13,000 are reportedly missing. ...

Japan: TEPCO worried over high radiation levels

New York: The reconnection of power at the earthquake-damaged reactors in Japan is a big step in managing the nuclear crisis, experts said on Monday, but concerns about radiation in the air, seawater and food showed the dangers are far from over. Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) on Monday said radiation at much higher levels than normal was found in the Pacific Ocean near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear...  

Where is Japan's nuclear power CEO?

Tokyo: The head of the Japanese power company at the centre of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters has all but vanished from the public eye. And many Japanese, on a knife edge waiting to see if the nuclear power plant and radiation leaks can be brought under control, are beginning to ask where he is and questioning how much he is in control of the crisis. Masataka Shimizu,...  

Efforts on to tackle crisis in quake-hit Japan

Tokyo: Engineers restored electricity to three reactors at a crippled Japanese nuclear power plant and hope to test water pumps at the quake-damaged facility soon, the first clear signs of progress in tackling the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years. Japan suffered an estimated $ 250 billion in damage from the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left more than 21,000 people dead or missing, while radiation leaks...