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September 08, 2025
 

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DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

A bridge linking Izushima and the Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture is scheduled to open in December.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 30, 2024
Onagawa nuclear plant's restart sparks concerns over evacuation routes
Residents, particularly those of islands close to the newly restarted plant, lament the limited options for escaping a disaster.
Rescuers take part in a drill held at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN
Oct 25, 2024
Large-scale drill held at Haneda Airport
More than 1,000 participants practiced procedures for putting out fires and rescuing people involved in an accident.
The vast space and massive pillars of the Metropolitan Outer Area Underground Discharge Channel dwarf visitors.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 24, 2024
Massive underground infrastructure protects the Tokyo metropolitan area from floods
The Metropolitan Outer Area Underground Discharge Channel is a unique feat of engineering built to keep homes and businesses safe and dry.
Vending machine enthusiast Kenzaburo Ishida
JAPAN / Society
Oct 24, 2024
Useful even in disasters: Japan's ever-evolving vending machines
Vending machine enthusiast Kenzaburo Ishida breaks down their unique appeal, evolution and crucial role in times of disaster.
Plaintiffs in a damages lawsuit over the 2014 eruption of Mount Ontake enter the Tokyo High Court in the capital's Kasumigaseki district on Monday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 21, 2024
Tokyo High Court rejects damages claim over Ontake eruption deaths
The presiding judge overturned a lower court's finding that Meteorological Agency officials violated their duty of care in the 2014 disaster.
A farmer salvages some of the harvest from a flooded rice field near Hanoi on Sept. 24
ENVIRONMENT
Oct 16, 2024
AI enhances flood warnings but cannot fully erase risk of disaster
One issue is that the effectiveness of an artificial intelligence model is only as good as the information it is fed.
A man searches through the rubble of a wrecked house in the Turkish town of Cankiri after a strong earthquake hit central Turkey in June 2000.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 13, 2024
Earthquakes, hurricanes and other disasters will shape our future cities
The progress of Antakya’s renewal bears watching. However it proceeds, there will be lessons to learn.
Oita Prefecture's new fire and ambulance command center, located in the city of Oita, accepts live video footage from callers, allowing dispatchers to assess emergency situations more accurately.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 7, 2024
Oita Prefecture first in Japan to launch centralized fire command center
The new command center centralizes emergency 119 call response at the prefecture level, and scales up as needed during major disasters.
A girl charges her phone at the Delpan Evacuation Center after Typhoon Kammuri hit Manila in December 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Oct 7, 2024
Crowd-sourcing data could help Philippines tackle deadly floods
The Philippines is hit by around 20 large storms every year and, due to climate change, that is expected to only get worse.
A damaged road in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 6, after a major earthquake struck the area on New Year's Day
ENVIRONMENT / Earth science / OUR PLANET
Oct 6, 2024
Important tool or alarmism? Japan experts split on megaquake advisories.
Supporters say the advisories are about reducing risk, but critics see a system that isn’t based on science and one in which the cons outweigh the pros.
An emergency shelter in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, set up in January after a powerful earthquake earlier that month. The central government plans to survey the level of stockpiles at temporary shelters around the country.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 6, 2024
Japanese government to survey stockpiles at designated shelters
The survey is expected to cover stocks of food, blankets, baby formula, paper diapers for infants and adults, portable toilets, toilet paper and sanitary products.
A lifeguard waving a tsunami flag during a demonstration
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 4, 2024
Meteorological agency ramps up 'tsunami flag' awareness efforts
Visual communication tools like tsunami flags are critical at swimming beaches, where sound can be obscured by waves and wind.
The Ishikawa Prefectural Government engaged KDDI SmartDrone to have its drone operators survey flood-hit areas in the cities of Wajima and Suzu in the prefecture last week.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 3, 2024
Private drone operators seek bigger role in disaster response
Establishing protocols with local governments and coordinating the use of drones with manned aircraft would make efforts more effective, they say.
A gas station damaged by Hurricane Helene in Perry, Florida, on Sept. 27. Extreme weather and climate change are exposing the flaws in how we handle hazardous waste.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Oct 3, 2024
Toxic waste is at the mercy of climate change
Among Hurricane Helene’s roster of disasters is a storm surge that deluged a retired nuclear power plant in Florida. While radioactive material there remains secure, according to operator Duke Energy, one of the plant’s industrial wastewater ponds overflowed amid the flood. With luck, any resulting...
Water is seen at the bottom of the No.1 shaft, which maintains and controls the inflow and discharge channel as part of a complex of underground tunnels at the Metropolitan Outer Area Underground Discharge Channel in Kasukabe, Saitama Prefecture, which protect Tokyo and its suburbs against floods.
JAPAN
Oct 3, 2024
Japan expands underground complex to counter climate change rains
The Metropolitan Outer Area Underground Discharge Channel has already prevented more than ¥150 billion in flood damage.
The deep-sea drilling vessel Chikyu is docked at the Port of Shimizu on Sept. 5 ahead of a 106-day expedition by researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2024
Japan's deep-sea vessel digs for answers to 2011 earthquake
In a hundred-day expedition, scientists aboard the Chikyu aim to piece together the earthquake's story and assess the potential for another temblor to be triggered.
Rescue personnel search for missing people in debris after flooding along the Tsukada River Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Sept. 23.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 30, 2024
Lessons from Japan’s fight against floods as the climate changes
As climate change intensifies flood risk, Japan should rely more on adaptive and nature-based solutions to prepare for disasters like the recent deluge in Ishikawa.
Employees of the Tokai village government in Ibaraki Prefecture offers a moment of silence on Monday to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a criticality accident that occurred at a facility of nuclear fuel-processing company JCO.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 30, 2024
Ex-mayor raps government for lack of preparedness for nuclear disasters
Tatsuya Murakami, who dealt with a 1999 nuclear accident as a village chief, warns against the pursuit of nuclear power without weighing its risks.
Families of people killed by the eruption of Mount Ontake 10 years ago offer prayers in Otaki, Nagano Prefecture, on Friday.
JAPAN / Society
Sep 27, 2024
Victims of Mount Ontake eruption remembered 10 years on
Silent prayers were offered at 11:52 a.m., the time when the country's worst volcanic disaster in the postwar era occurred on Sept. 27, 2014.
A ride-hailing service vehicle in Sendai. In times of disasters, such services will be available more widely.
JAPAN
Sep 17, 2024
Japan to allow use of ride-hailing services in disasters
Demand for transportation tends to increase during disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, as well as in the recovery and reconstruction process.
Japan to experience blood moon lunar eclipse on Monday
A blood moon is seen during a partial eclipse in the sky over Lake George near Canberra on March 14.
‘Confugenics’ and East Asia's demographic crisis
East Asia’s fertility plunge is driven not just by financial costs but by perfectionist cultural expectations that burden parents with intense educational and social demands.
Japan prince comes of age as succession crisis looms
Prince Hisahito concludes his elaborate "kakan no gi" coming-of-age ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Saturday.
Ishiba to quit as prime minister amid LDP discontent
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announces his decision to step down, at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Sunday.
Bangladesh is a South Asian time bomb
Many Bangladeshis hoped that the overthrow of long-time leader Sheikh Hasina last year would revitalize the country’s democracy after an authoritarian lurch under the “iron lady.” Instead it has led to proliferating human-rights abuses, intensifying repression and widespread Islamist violence.
In rural Hokkaido, the stops and starts of tourism revival on full display
Redevelopment plans for Kawayu Onsen have hit some snags — an example of how bringing tourists back to declining rural communities is far from easy work.
London’s calling and sumo’s top division — along with Hello Kitty — are ready to answer
Yokozuna Hoshoryu and Hello Kitty, an ambassador for sumo's upcoming tour to London, at Tokyo's Kokugikan on Tuesday
Resonac creates 27-member consortium to pursue advanced chip developments
Representatives from member companies of JOINT3, a consortium working together on semiconductor-related developments announced by Resonac, pose for a photo in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Haru Nemuri’s radical new album refuses easy listening
Musician Haruna Kimishima, better known as Haru Nemuri, confronts Japan’s politics, nationalism and censorship on her recent output.
Overseas sluggers step up to bat in small-town Hokkaido
The Betsukai Pilot Spirits welcomed new players (left to right) Yuta Yamanaka, Roman Guthrie, Scott Bellina and Leo Jiminian this year, pictured here with Yassir Lachkar of the Ishikari Red Phoenix.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

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
By Alex K.T. Martin

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