The mayor of the village of Katsurao, Fukushima Prefecture, won a U.N.-sponsored award Monday for his prompt response to the March 2011 disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, when he worked to save 1,600 people from high-level radiation. ...

The Meteorological Agency introduced a new system Friday for issuing alerts for extreme weather that could become “life-threatening.” The new system applies to powerful typhoons, torrential rain, tsunami, high waves, blizzards and potentially destructive winds. The system incorporates existing alerts for 3-meter tsunami or ...

A rising number of young people who had left their hometowns in Tohoku before the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami wrecked the region have started returning to support its recovery. Mamoru Kondo, 27, is one of many young Tohoku natives who had moved ...

Protesters demanded the execution of factory bosses Wednesday over the death of nearly 400 people in a building collapse as May Day became the focus of workers’ anger over Bangladesh’s worst industrial disaster. Despite calls by the prime minister for “cool heads,” tensions over ...

The day after a building collapsed in Bangladesh, killing more than 230 people, disagreement emerged Friday over whether the owner obtained appropriate construction permits, adding to concerns over worker safety in the country’s thriving garment industry. Rana Plaza’s owner didn’t get permission from Dhaka’s ...

Risa Hikata used to listen with half an ear whenever her father praised Kyoto Prefecture, their hometown, as a “great place.” But when the kudos came from visitors from afar, somehow she was able to accept it genuinely. Now as an “outsider” herself helping ...