NEWSWORTHY
Bridge linking Miyagi Prefecture's disaster-hit Oshima Island with Kesennuma is opened
A bridge connecting Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture with a nearby island in the Pacific Ocean went into service Sunday. The bridge to Oshima was built as a lifeline for its residents. When the island's ferry port was damaged during the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, ...
Japanese government aims to have all evacuees in Miyagi and Iwate secure new homes by 2021
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that by March 2021 the government will aim to complete the building and securing of houses for those forced to evacuate due to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in two of the three hardest-hit prefectures in Tohoku. The government ...
In Tohoku, samurai cuisine is racking up Michelin stars
In the town of Shiogama in Miyagi Prefecture, there's a residential neighborhood overlooking Matsushima Bay, the epicenter of Japan's catastrophic March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. On a quiet street there, chef Hideyuki Irakawa and his wife, Michiko, have been serving samurai food from ...
Snow-shy Miyazaki ski resort staves off closure for another year
Japan's southernmost ski resort plans to operate for another winter despite the continuing downtrend in guests. Gokase Highland Ski & Snowboard in Miyazaki Prefecture managed to improve business performance by cutting costs last season, which ended March 5, but customers fell to an all-time low ...
Japan's young farmers pin hopes on technology to revitalize agricultural industry
A new breed of younger, business- and tech-savvy farmers is transforming Japan's shrinking agriculture sector with cutting-edge techniques and marketing strategies, giving new hope to an industry in slow decline. Hiroki Iwasa, a 40-year-old IT entrepreneur with an MBA, grows strawberries in seven high-tech greenhouses ...
The body of a Sendai high school student who vanished during a failed dinghy outing off Miyagi Prefecture has been found, the Japan Coast Guard said Monday. The body of Rui Sakai, 16, was found 620 meters off Kitakama Beach in Natori, the Coast Guard's ...
Bonfire may be cause of Miyagi fire that forced 400 people to flee homes, investigators say
Police said Tuesday that a bonfire may be the source of a forest fire that broke out Monday in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, which temporarily forced nearly 400 residents from 117 households to evacuate. According to police officials, a resident alerted firefighters around noon Monday to ...
Ishinomaki to appeal ruling over tsunami deaths of school students
The city’s mayor says it will appeal a court ruling ordering it to pay, together with Miyagi Prefecture, ¥1.4 billion in damages.
Settlement reached over student deaths at tsunami-hit driving school
The families of 25 teens killed in the 2011 tsunami while they were at a driving school in Miyagi Prefecture reached a financial settlement with the school on Wednesday in a deal that also includes an apology from the latter over the deaths. In the ...
Winemakers plant seeds of tourism in Japan's disaster zone
Making wine is difficult anywhere in Japan, but try doing it in a part of the country that has been rocked by an earthquake and tsunami, and spurned because of a nuclear disaster. Akiu Winery, near Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture that's about 300 ...
Swans, and us, at risk as wetlands shrink
Soon after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, and the huge tsunami it triggered that killed almost 16,000 people and left more than 2,500 missing in the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu, our C.W. Nicol Afan Woodland Trust contacted the many ...
Discovery of skeleton results in Saitama man's arrest in alleged slaying of girlfriend
Miyagi Prefectural Police arrested a 29-year-old man of Toda, Saitama Prefecture, Tuesday for killing a 17-year-old girlfriend and dumping her body in the woods in Miyagi. Ryo Sato, a construction worker, has admitted to the charges, according to police. Investigators alleged that Sato murdered Mayu Shiratori, ...
