Search - cabinet

 
 
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2011

Rural sports complex turns into base camp for nuclear workers

FUKUSHIMA — At the edge of a no-man's land around the Fukushima No. 1 reactor complex lies a grassy athletic village that now serves as base camp for an army of workers battling the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
JAPAN
Apr 2, 2011

Kan names quake at pep talk

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Friday that preparations for restoration and reconstruction work have begun in disaster-hit areas and Japan will prevail over the hardships caused by the massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
EDITORIALS
Apr 2, 2011

Funding reconstruction

The record ¥92.41 trillion budget for fiscal 2011 was enacted Tuesday. Although the opposition-controlled Upper House voted it down earlier in the day, it was enacted due to a constitutional provision that mandates that a Lower House vote on a national budget prevails over an Upper House vote. Even...
BUSINESS
Apr 2, 2011

State not ruling out a stake in Tepco

The government said Friday it hasn't ruled out taking a stake in Tokyo Electric Power Co., which has lost more than 80 percent of its market value since the crisis started at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
JAPAN
Apr 1, 2011

High radiation found outside no-go zone

Despite alarming new radiation data presented by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the government said Thursday it has no plans to widen the evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2011

NGO finds high levels in safe area

Radiology experts from Greenpeace urged the government Wednesday to expand the evacuation zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant after they found high levels of radiation outside the 20-km mandatory no-go zone.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2011

Fukushima No. 1's scary shadow

FUKUSHIMA — Tetsuo Sakuma has loaded his small pickup with all it can carry. There's not much of value: a television, some books, boxes of clothes, snatched in haste from a home he may never sleep in again.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2011

Ideas floated to stanch leak of radiation

With operations to pump out massive amounts of contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant running into trouble, new ideas surfaced Wednesday to move the effort forward, including storing the tainted water in tankers and covering the reactor sites with fabric shrouds.
JAPAN
Mar 31, 2011

DPJ withdraws child allowance bill as opposition digs its heels in

The Democratic Party of Japan-led government withdrew a bill Wednesday to provide monthly child allowances for the fiscal year that starts Friday, including increasing payments for children under 3, amid criticism from opposition parties that the money should be used to reconstruct the March 11 disaster...
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Mar 30, 2011

Latest find sounds scary but risk is limited

Revelations that low amounts of plutonium, a component of nuclear bombs, were detected in soil near the Fukushima No. 1 plant sent shock waves across the nation Tuesday.
JAPAN
Mar 30, 2011

Plutonium traces point to core leak

Plutonium that may have come from a reactor core at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was detected in soil on the premises, indicating fuel rods suffered heavy damage, Tokyo Electric Power Co. has revealed.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 30, 2011

Western utilities to channel power east

The government is in talks with utilities to add equipment to channel more electricity from western Japan to ease shortages in the east, including Tokyo, after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami shut nuclear plants.
JAPAN
Mar 29, 2011

Radioactive water keeps workers out

Reactor turbine basements flooded with highly radioactive materials kept a desperate effort to stabilize the Fukushima No. 1 power plant at bay Monday, as fresh data showed that nearby seawater was being contaminated further by the leaking facility.
BUSINESS
Mar 29, 2011

In wake of disaster, tax hike issue revisited

A tax increase to finance earthquake reconstruction may be unavoidable considering the nation's huge debt, two ruling party officials said, and two-thirds of the public agrees the measure may be necessary.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 27, 2011

Japanese officials dress the part but fail to address the issues

During the March 19 broadcast of TBS' "Newscaster," comedian Beat Takeshi complained about the work clothes (sagyogi) that Japan's politicians changed into after the earthquake-tsunami of March 11, saying that instead of trying to give the impression that they were working they should go up to the afflicted...
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2011

Level of iodine-131 in seawater off chart

The level of radioactive iodine detected in seawater near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was 1,250 times above the maximum level allowable, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Saturday, suggesting contamination from the reactors is spreading.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2011

'Voluntary' evacuation set for 20 to 30 km

Residents living between 20 and 30 km from the wrecked Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant are being urged to "voluntarily evacuate" amid difficulties in obtaining daily necessities and the possibility of further radiation leaks, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Friday.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2011

Kan breaks silence, vows to help locals rebuild lives

Addressing the public for the first time in a week, Prime Minister Naoto Kan vowed Friday evening to do everything in his power to prevent the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant from escalating.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2011

'Drastic' ideas eyed for power crisis

The government will come up with a drastic plan by April to deal with a major electricity shortage expected this summer from the loss of two nuclear power plants damaged by the quake and tsunami in Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2011

Get kids, pregnant women well clear of nuke zone: politicians

OSAKA — Two dozen Diet members have signed a letter calling on the government to immediately get young children and pregnant women out of the 30-km danger zone around the heavily damaged Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2011

Tap water woes hit Chiba, Saitama, Ibaraki

The scope of radiation-contaminated tap water expanded Thursday, with radioactive iodine detected in tap water in Chiba, Saitama and Ibaraki prefectures, while the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which said the day before its drinking water was contaminated, scurried to distribute 240,000 bottles of water...
JAPAN
Mar 25, 2011

No. 3 cooling pump test-run readied

Work to restore key equipment at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant's crippled reactors continued Thursday, despite reports of smoke rising from reactors No. 1 through 4.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past