NEWSWORTHY
More in LDP call for surge in public works after disasters but some see election ploy
An increasing number of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers are calling for boosting public works projects to improve infrastructure.
In Mabicho, delays, lack of awareness raised death toll from floods
When Isao Akutagawa moved to the sleepy riverside community of Mabicho in Okayama Prefecture 45 years ago, it seemed like the perfect suburb to raise his children. In the town, which was merged with the nearby city of Kurashiki in 2005 and is now called ...
70% of rain victims in west Japan were 60 or older, death tallies show
Seventy percent of the people killed by the torrential rain in western Japan this month were 60 or older, tallies show. Of 169 fatalities identified as of Sunday evening, 118 were 60 or older and six were under 10. The downpours began on July 5, triggering ...
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 ...
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 ...
Emperor, Empress cancel summer retreat to Nasu over flood disaster
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko have cancelled their planned summer retreat north of Tokyo following last weekend's deadly torrential rain in western Japan, the Imperial Household Agency said Friday. The Imperial Couple's routine stay at an Imperial villa in the town of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, ...
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 ...
No foreign nationals listed among dead in western Japan rain disasters, survey of prefectures shows
Fourteen prefectures hit by recent heavy rain and landslides in western Japan have not recorded any foreign nationals as having died or gone missing, a Japan Times phone survey of local governments has found. Among the 14 prefectures, the three hardest-hit are Hiroshima, with 94 ...
The heavy toll of last week's heavy rains in western Japan highlight flaws in the nation's disaster defenses.
Ehime residents recount horrific landslide death of beloved friend and neighbor
Residents in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, are mourning the loss of a well-loved member of their community this week, in the wake of downpours and flooding that killed at least 200 across western Japan. Hidefumi Izumi, 64, was known for his reliability and dedicated service to ...
