NEWSWORTHY
JR East shinkansen ALFA-X prototype hits 320 kph in test run in northeastern Japan
A prototype of Japan's new shinkansen conducted a trial early Thursday, reaching 320 kilometers per hour, the maximum speed for existing shinkansen models. The prototype, dubbed ALFA-X, is designed to travel at 360 kph when it is put into service by the spring of 2031, ...
Body from March 2011 disaster identified from decade-old stamp
The Miyagi Prefectural Police have said that a corpse discovered in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami has been identified as that of a 60-year-old woman from the Miyagi town of Onagawa. The identification was made with DNA samples from a ...
Japan pitches safety of food from Fukushima and Tohoku in wake of WTO ruling for South Korea
Japan will seek to reassure other countries about the safety of food produced in areas affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, officials said Friday, after the World Trade Organization supported South Korea's import ban on some Japanese seafood. Fishermen in Tohoku, the region hit ...
Abe sacks gaffe-prone Olympics minister Sakurada after 3/11 remarks and gives predecessor job back
After effectively removing gaffe-prone Olympics minister Yoshitaka Sakurada Wednesday night, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appointed Shunichi Suzuki, Sakurada's predecessor, as the next Olympics minister Thursday. "I want (Suzuki) to regain trust and bring the Olympics to a success," Abe told reporters Thursday morning. Sakurada submitted his ...
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on Monday hosted a group of students from the Tohoku region to discuss its recovery from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, as well as preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Games. The five teenage "reconstruction ambassadors" from Iwate, ...
Tokyo Paralympic Games get a cherry blossom torch with new color and braille text
The organizing committee of the 2020 Tokyo Games has unveiled the Paralympic version of the official torch, which uses the braille alphabet and differs from the Olympic torch in color. Both the Paralympic and Olympic torches for next year's games make use of Japan's iconic ...
Tsunami-hit railway in northeast Japan resumes regular services
A railway line stretching more than 160 kilometers along Iwate Prefecture's Pacific Coast resumed regular services Sunday for the first time since sustaining heavy damage caused by the 2011 tsunami and massive earthquake that devastated the Tohoku region. The service between Miyako and Kamaishi stations ...
Yusuke Kimura's 'Sacred Cesium Ground and Isa's Deluge': Tohoku refuses to be silenced
In Yusuke Kimura's two novellas, "Sacred Cesium Ground" and "Isa's Deluge," the aftermath of the 3/11 disaster plays out across two stories exploring the post-disaster relationships between humans and animals.
The restoration of infrastructure crippled in the disasters may be nearly completed after eight years, but the rebuilding of people's lives disrupted by the catastrophe, including psychological support for them, remains an ongoing challenge.
Tohoku residents still haunted by memories of devastating 3/11 triple disaster
Despite the passage of time, their stories are still heart-wrenching.
A new approach to volunteering in Tohoku
When Angela Ortiz describes what it felt like to return to Aomori Prefecture five days after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, she uses words like "horror," "incredulous disbelief" and "intense curiosity." The 36-year-old American lived in Aomori between the ages of ...
Japanese government adopts revised policy for disaster reconstruction
The government adopted Friday a revised basic policy for the reconstruction of areas affected by the March 2011 disasters, which features the establishment of a successor body to the Reconstruction Agency. The existing agency is to be dissolved by the end of March 2021, 10 ...
