Tag - fukushima

 
 

FUKUSHIMA

A pachinko parlor worker and two others were arrested over a case of about ¥28 million in cash being stolen from the safe of the parlor in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 20, 2025
Pachinko parlor employee arrested for alleged role in robbery
The employee's involvement in the case came to light based on the statements of two others who had already been arrested for the robbery.
Michi Saito touches a piece of a dummy atomic bomb that took away her brother's life in 1945, during an interview at Zuiryu Temple in Fukushima on July 14.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Aug 18, 2025
98-year-old woman recalls brother's death from dummy atomic bomb
A U.S. military unit dropped dummy bombs in various parts of Japan as part of exercises aimed at training forces to gain the high skills required to drop nuclear weapons.
Police are looking for the whereabouts of cash taken from a pachinko parlor in Fukushima Prefecture where a robbery took place on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 14, 2025
Two men arrested for ¥28 million robbery at Fukushima pachinko parlor
Police believe that a 19-year-old brandished a fake gun to get the money while a 21-year-old drove the getaway car.
Students at the Taira First Elementary School in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, learn about the World War II "mock atomic bombs" during a special class given at the school in July.
JAPAN
Aug 7, 2025
People work to pass on stories of U.S. 'mock atomic bombs' dropped on Japan in WWII
Over 400 people were killed by 49 of what are also called "pumpkin bombs" that the U.S. dropped on Japan between July 20 and Aug. 14, 1945.
Tanks of treated water at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in February
JAPAN
Aug 3, 2025
Tepco wraps up latest round of treated water release in Fukushima
The discharge of the water was suspended due to a tsunami caused by a major earthquake near Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula last week.
Storage tanks containing treated water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture in March 2021.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 30, 2025
Tepco ordered to pay ¥100 million in damages over 2011 disaster
Presiding Judge Masahiko Abe ordered the payment mainly as compensation for damage to property and consolation money.
The officials of Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation speak during a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2025
Debris removal at Fukushima nuclear plant pushed back to 2037 or later
This delay may push the completion of the plant's decommissioning process beyond the target year of 2051 set by the government and Tepco.
Soil from the Fukushima No. 1 plant is delivered to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's office in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN
Jul 19, 2025
Fukushima soil delivered to Ishiba's office for reuse
With few willing to take the contaminated earth, the government took it upon itself to reuse some of the soil to show it is not dangerous.
Lake Inawashiro in Fukushima Prefecture
JAPAN
Jul 16, 2025
Lake Inawashiro registered as internationally important wetland under Ramsar Convention
The designation marks the 54th wetland in Japan to be registered under the international treaty.
Shuhei Nakata, president of Nakata Kogei — a wooden-hanger maker in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture — says a revised work evaluation system and a strict policy against workplace harassment has helped to attract women to the company.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jul 14, 2025
Fukushima looks to local initiatives to combat population decline
The measures will bring the area in line with other parts of Japan that are proactively trying to retain residents.
Tomoaki Kobayakawa (second from right), president of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, and others meet with Aomori Gov. Soichiro Miyashita (foreground) on Monday in the Aomori Prefectural Government office.
JAPAN
Jul 8, 2025
Tepco plans to move spent nuclear fuel from Fukushima to Mutsu facility
The interim facility in the Aomori Prefecture city will store spent fuel from nuclear plants operated by Tepco and Japan Atomic Power for up to 50 years.
A viral manga prediction of a July 5 disaster has gripped Japan with anxiety and triggered an economic impact, but experts warn that while such dates are unreliable, the threat of a massive earthquake remains real. 
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 2, 2025
A prophesied disaster (likely) won’t strike Japan this weekend
The Japan Meteorological Agency has taken to social media to caution that "any such predictions should be considered unreliable.”
In a statement on their official website, Tokio said it had decided to disband following a compliance violation by Taichi Kokubun, without providing details as to what the violation entailed.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Jun 26, 2025
Japanese pop-rock band Tokio announces disbandment after 31 years
The group said it will bring an end to its activities as Tokio following a compliance violation by member Taichi Kokubun but did not disclose details.
Expectant parents Masataka and Saki Ohita look at ultrasound images of their unborn twins.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 23, 2025
Childbirth facilities disappearing from Fukushima towns
With just 26 facilities in the prefecture that can handle deliveries, there is concern that the trend could accelerate population decline.
Trishit Banerjee moved to Japan in 2015, embarking on an academic and personal journey that taught him lessons about the collective and the individual.
COMMUNITY / Voices / FOREIGN AGENDA
Jun 23, 2025
A singular ensemble: Indian food, science and Fukushima
After moving to Sendai for college, an Indian student began thinking about the dynamic between the individual and the ensemble — in food, science and society.
Under a new basic policy for reconstruction, the government will tackle such issues as the final disposal of soil removed during radiation decontamination after the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings' Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2025
¥1.9 trillion over five years eyed for 2011 tsunami reconstruction
The amount tops ¥1.6 trillion for the five years through fiscal 2025, which ends in March.
After the appellate court ruling in the shareholders' lawsuit over the Tepco Fukushima No.1 nuclear accident, plaintiffs hold up signs reading "Unjust Ruling" on Friday in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 6, 2025
High court overturns ruling against ex-Tepco executives
The count found the executives were unable to predict the tsunami that triggered the triple reactor meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Takuya Haraguchi, head of ReFruits, speaks while looking at the kiwifruit vine at his farm in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, on April 24. A newcomer to farming, he hopes to revive the area by growing kiwifruits in this former no-go zone.
JAPAN
Jun 6, 2025
'Moving forward': the Gen Z farmer growing Fukushima kiwifruits
Fukushima is renowned for its delicious fruit, from pears to peaches, but the nuclear disaster led many people in Japan to shun produce grown there.
Kimihiro Matsuzaki prepares dishes at his half-century-old restaurant, Yanagi, in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 2, 2025
Profitable Fukushima companies closing due to lack of successors
According to Teikoku Databank, more than a third of the companies that went out of business in the prefecture in 2024 were in the black.
Workers add clean topsoil to a rice field, part of a government pilot project to add fresh earth to recycled and removed soil taken from areas affected by the 2011 nuclear disaster, in the village of Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, in April.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 1, 2025
Recycling contaminated soil from Fukushima: Japan's dilemma
Massive amounts of the soil — around 14 million cubic meters of it — remain in storage near the damaged plant.

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