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The head of an official inquiry into the deadly collapse of a Bangladesh factory complex said the building’s owner was the “main culprit” for the disaster because he violated construction codes. The cave-in of the eight-story Rana Plaza outside the capital last month killed ...
Throughout most of Japan, June is the rainy season. While all that rainfall is great for rice paddies so that we can have delicious new harvest rice in the fall, it makes it a rather dull month for seasonal produce: The summer’s bounty of ...
“I was stopped by two men in a government-registered vehicle, blindfolded and dragged off the street. They took me away to a house in a place I did not know. I was forced into a room with blood all over the walls and floor, ...
Claude Regy says the team at the Shizuoka Performing Arts Center (SPAC) threw him the “best birthday party ever” when he arrived in Japan just days after the actual May 1 occasion. The 90-year-old French director is hoping for an even better birthday gift, ...
As far as debuts go, Shohei Otani's delivered. The celebrated rookie pitched fairly well on Thursday night, and though he finished outside the decision, he left the mound with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters well within striking distance of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Japanese traditional sake had a resurgence in 2011, with drinkers consuming more than in 2010. After hitting a peak in the mid-1970s, consumption gradually fell to a third. Last year, though, saw a return of enthusiasm for sake as a way of supporting Tohoku, ...
Only 10 percent of buildings along important roads in Tokyo have been checked for earthquake resistance, according to officials at the metropolitan government’s Bureau of Urban Development. If buildings are not upgraded to higher safety standards, many vital roads and highways in the Tokyo ...
Japan’s economic prospects are not very bright due to the effects of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami and the stronger yen. But it is not that the prospects are completely gloomy. The government’s monthly assessment of the economy for April released in mid-April by ...
A panel of the Cabinet Office announced late last month that if a megaquake occurs in the Nankai Trough, a tsunami higher than 20 meters may hit 23 municipalities in six prefectures stretching from Kanto to Shikoku on Japan’s Pacific side. The prediction represents ...
For the fourth consecutive year, Japan’s land prices have fallen. Prices decreased an average 2.6 percent in 2011, but the decline was smaller than the 3.0 percent in 2010 as the economy bounced back from the 3/11 disasters. Commercial land prices slipped 3.1 percent ...
“Destination Tohoku,” the tourism campaign to help promote and revive tourism in the Tohoku region, started March 18. The Japan Tourism Agency and the local governments and tourism industry in the region hope that the campaign will bring tourists back to the region, which ...
A year after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami devastated the Pacific coastal areas of the Tohoku region, the government and people need to realize that 3/11 will not be the last large-scale natural disaster to hit Japan. The nation needs to prepare for powerful ...
One year after the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the Tohoku region, harvesting of wakame seaweed has started in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures. But the 3/11 disasters have left deep scars in fisheries of the region’s Pacific coastal areas. The central and local governments ...
At 2:46 p.m. Sunday, March 11, my family and I joined millions of Japanese standing silently at a Buddhist temple or a Shinto shrine. With heads bowed, we remembered the events of one year earlier, when our house swayed for nearly three minutes and ...
March 11 is etched in Japan’s collective consciousness. Sunday, on the first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which triggered the starkest crisis our country has faced in a generation, we commemorated all of those who suffered. Our thoughts went out to all ...
A year has passed since the massive earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc on the Pacific coastal areas of the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, and many survivors continue to suffer from their devastating effects. The impact of the natural disasters was compounded by ...
Over the past year, the tsunami-ravaged coastline of Japan’s northeast has undergone a cleanup never seen before in history for its sheer scale and speed. From Ishinomaki to Onagawa, Shichigahama to Kesennuma, the landscape has been drastically altered as the nation presses on with ...