NEWSWORTHY
Shooting stars on demand: Tokyo-based startup plans 2020 meteor shower
A Japanese startup developing "shooting stars on demand" says it will be ready to deliver the world's first artificial meteor shower in a spectacular show over Hiroshima in early 2020. ALE Co., based in Tokyo, is in the final stages of developing two microsatellites the ...
Hotels and tours in western Japan see cancellations after rain disaster
Thousands of people are canceling trips to popular tourist spots in western Japan even though many of their destinations were left unscathed by the recent deadly rain disaster, local officials said Wednesday. Dogo Onsen in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, known as one of Japan's oldest hot ...
The torrential rain has also hit agricultural and fisheries industries nationwide, with the government estimating damage of about ¥53 billion and warning that figure could rise.
Damage on the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors from the recent torrential rain that hit mainly western Japan has been estimated at ¥48.05 billion, the agriculture ministry said. The figure, assessed as of Monday morning and up from ¥43.69 billion as of Sunday morning, is ...
West Japan rains to be designated 'extremely severe disaster' to increase state aid subsidies
The government plans to designate the torrential rain that wreaked havoc in western Japan as a disaster of extreme severity so that subsidies for reconstruction projects can be increased.
A cram school in the Mabicho district of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, has reopened to accept both its own students and others whose schools were damaged by the region's deadly rains this month. In the wake of the disaster, the city's education board decided to keep ...
Hiroshima mom waited three decades before she shared her A-bomb experience
Ren Taoda couldn't get over the regret she felt about denying her badly burned son water as they fled the fires in Hiroshima sparked by the atomic bomb. On Aug. 6, 1945, Taoda, then 30, was on her way home from visiting her husband at ...
About 5,900 flood evacuees still in shelters; Tokyo moves to expedite aid
As of Friday, the deadly rains had caused over 600 landslides in 31 prefectures and halted seven expressways, 39 national roads and 24 train lines.
Thousands of volunteers began streaming into western Japan on Saturday to spend the three-day weekend helping flood-hit residents clean up their mud-caked homes and neighborhoods. The governments of hard-hit Ehime, Hiroshima and Okayama prefectures said they expect some 18,000 volunteers to arrive from across the ...
Western Japan struggles to restore water to flood-hit towns as temperatures soar
Hygiene and heat stroke remain the biggest threats in the flood-hit areas as municipalities struggle to restore water supplies in the affected prefectures.
Prosecutors claim relationship problems drove inmate to flee Ehime prison
The three-week manhunt sparked by Tatsuma Hirao’s escape was caused by disagreements with others at the minimum security prison, prosecutors claim as his trial opens.
Classmates and friends search for Hiroshima student missing after landslide
Classmates and neighbors continued Friday to dig out debris with shovels in their search for Shotaro Ueki, an 18-year-old high school student in Hiroshima who went missing in the wake of last week's torrential rains that caused devastating landslides and flooding across western Japan. In ...
