Tag - earthquakes

 
 

EARTHQUAKES

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sent his condolences to Myanmar and Thailand after a huge earthquake rocked the countries, his office said Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 29, 2025
Japan sends condolences to Myanmar and Thailand after quake
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sent a message to Thailand, while Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya sent messages to both Thailand and Myanmar.
A resident looks on next to a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Friday, after an earthquake rocked the country's central region.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 29, 2025
Myanmar quake toll passes 1,000 as rescuers dig for survivors
At least 1,007 people were killed and nearly 2,400 injured in Myanmar, with 30 more missing, the junta said in a statement.
Medical workers treat a earthquake survivor on a bed in the compound of a hospital in Naypyitaw on Friday, after an earthquake in central Myanmar.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 29, 2025
Massive quake kills at least 150 in Myanmar and Thailand
The quake flattened buildings, downed bridges and cracked roads across swathes of Myanmar, and even demolished a 30-story skyscraper under construction in Bangkok.
People gather near a collapsed building in Bangkok on Friday after a strong earthquake.
ASIA PACIFIC
Mar 28, 2025
Panic on the streets of Bangkok as skyscraper collapses in quake
In the aftermath of the quake, a cloud of dust and debris swept through the streets as panicked residents ran for their lives.
Shikoku Electric Power's Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime Prefecture. The Matsuyama District Court has rejected a petition filed by some 1,500 residents near the nuclear plant in the town of Ikata over safety concerns.
JAPAN
Mar 19, 2025
District court rejects residents' petition to halt Ikata nuclear power plant
The petition was filed over safety concerns by some 1,500 residents living near the plant in Ehime Prefecture, which is operated by Shikoku Electric Power.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba instructs his government to develop a system to operate what are known as hospital ships by January 2026 at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2025
Japan to begin hospital ship operations by next January
The program calls for using existing private-sector ships to transport patients from disaster-affected areas and provide medical care.
Locals fill up bottles from a communal water tank in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 30, 2024, following the Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year's Day.
JAPAN / Politics
Mar 18, 2025
Lower House passes bill on peninsular disaster prevention
The bill is centered around advancing disaster prevention efforts that take into consideration the unique geographic features of such regions.
Yoshihito Sasaki at Nijikko no Ie, a facility he set up in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, to provide a safe space for those suffering from severe social withdrawal
JAPAN / Society
Mar 14, 2025
Man's grief over wife and son leads to haven for social recluses
Yoshihito Sasaki sought to fulfill his late wife's wish of providing a safe space for those suffering from severe social withdrawal.
Bookshelves storing disaster-related documents at the Sendai City Archives in Sendai in February
JAPAN
Mar 12, 2025
Local governments struggle to preserve records of March 2011 disaster
Fourteen years later, securing storage space has become a growing obstacle as the volume of records continues to increase.
People observe a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m. on Tuesday in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit 14 years ago. Behind them is a pine tree dubbed "the miracle tree" that survived the tsunami.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 11, 2025
Japan marks 14 years since 3/11 earthquake, with over 27,000 still displaced
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he will pass down the lessons of the disaster to future generations.
A woman visits a grave in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, on Tuesday on the 14th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Populations in the hardest hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima are sharply falling.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025
Post-disaster Tohoku struggles with population decline
The number of people aged 20 to 39 in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures fell by about 20% to 30% between 2010 and 2024.
Junko Yagi, a professor at Iwate Medical University, speaks during an interview on Jan. 10 in the town of Yahaba, Iwate Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025
Experts urge ongoing mental health care for families in 3/11 disaster areas
"Parents and children alike are carrying heavy emotional burdens," one expert said.
Tetsuya Tadano gazes at the school building from the hillside behind Okawa Elementary School on Feb. 7 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025
Former students work to turn tsunami-hit elementary school into social hub
One former student felt the school has become increasingly defined solely by the tragedy.
Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori says he wants the central government to clarify and accelerate the plan for disposing of soil from radiation decontamination work.
JAPAN
Mar 11, 2025
Governor urges contaminated soil be disposed of outside Fukushima by 2045
A law states all contaminated soil must be disposed of outside Fukushima by March 2045.
Every year, there is heightened interest in commemorating the 3/11 disaster around the time of the anniversary. But memorial facilities and operators are increasingly struggling to keep their activities going all year round and as time passes.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 10, 2025
Preserving the memory of 3/11 is becoming more difficult
Despite a peak in interest around the 3/11 anniversary, disaster memorial facilities and operators are facing mounting challenges in keeping their activities going as time passes.
Mayor Jin Sato attends the unveiling ceremony of the monument, which inscribes the names of 37 town officials who died while working on response to the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, on Sunday in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2025
Monument erected in Miyagi to remember officials who died in March 2011
The monument is inscribed with the words, "We will never forget that day."
The Ukedo Elementary School Ruins in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, in January. The Fukushima Prefectural Government offers training sessions for new prefectural government recruits to visit the school, the prefecture's sole preserved disaster-hit structure.
JAPAN
Mar 10, 2025
14 years on, prefectural governments work to pass on lessons to new hires
Many prefectural officials who were involved in front-line operations in the immediate aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami are retiring.
Yoshiaki Nakano (center), head of the Mebuki residents’ association, comprising residents of the Moniwa No. 2 municipal-run housing complex in Sendai’s Taihaku Ward, addresses a board meeting on Feb. 2.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Tohoku
Mar 10, 2025
Public housing residents' associations in Sendai struggle to find leaders
Those age 65 and older account for 43.9% of the residents in such housing, 18.7 percentage points higher than the ratio of elderly in the city.
Former Executive Vice President Ichiro Takekuro enters the Tokyo High Court for the appellate court ruling in January 2023 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 6, 2025
Acquittal of two former Tepco executives to be finalized
The Supreme Court supported the lower courts' decisions that the accident was unpredictable and decided to dismiss an appeal by lawyers acting as prosecutors.
Minister for Reconstruction Tadahiko Ito responding to a question at a group interview on Monday at the Reconstruction Agency
JAPAN
Mar 6, 2025
Reconstruction minister vows to address Fukushima soil reuse
"It's natural that Futaba residents are concerned," Tadahiko Ito said of the envisaged plan to first consider reusing the decontaminated soil in the town.

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