https://www.scmp.com/rss/36055/feed On March 11, 2011, a devastating 9.0 earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, claiming the lives of more than 15,000 people. It was the most powerful known earthquake ever to have hit Japan, and one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world. In the aftermath, a state of emergency was declared following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the evacuation of nearby residents. Radiation levels inside the plant were up to 1,000 times... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Some residents who used to live in part of a Fukushima village that is still off-limits due to high radiation levels from the 2011 nuclear disaster will finally be allowed to return home as an evacuation order will be lifted on June 12, officials said on Monday. Even more than a decade after the disaster, a zone totalling about 337 square kilometres remains subject to the order. Of the “difficult-to-return” zone, authorities have decided to end the designation for a 0.95 square km area in... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3177992/japan-open-part-fukushima-town-has-been-limits-nuclear-disaster?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3177992/japan-open-part-fukushima-town-has-been-limits-nuclear-disaster?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 May 2022 00:42:15 +0000 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Japanese lawmakers to expand their already unprecedented sanctions regime against Russia, saying he needed more help to turn back the “tsunami of brutal invasion.” In a speech Wednesday to the Japanese Diet, Zelensky reiterated his call for a trade embargo against Russia. The video address – like his other appeals to supportive parliaments – was peppered with references intended to strike a chord locally, such as an allusion to the 2011 tsunami that... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3171574/ukraine-war-zelensky-urges-japan-help-fight-against?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/3171574/ukraine-war-zelensky-urges-japan-help-fight-against?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 23 Mar 2022 11:12:54 +0000 Tens of thousands of Japanese households remained without power on Thursday morning after a magnitude 7.4 quake struck soon before midnight, throwing a swathe of northeastern Japan into darkness, severing key transport links and killing four. Companies including Toyota and chip maker Renesas Electronics Corp raced to assess the impact, with any supply chain disruption likely to add pressure to strained global output of smartphones, electronics and automobiles. The temblor revived memories of... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3170725/73-magnitude-quake-hits-east-japan-tsunami-advisory-issued?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3170725/73-magnitude-quake-hits-east-japan-tsunami-advisory-issued?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Mar 2022 15:28:10 +0000 Japan hit its target of 1 trillion yen (US$8.67 billion) in annual food exports in 2021, a 25.6 per cent increase on the previous year, thanks in large part to big-spending Chinese consumers snapping up high-end products ranging from whisky and sake to scallops, beef, fruit and vegetables. Mainland China resumed top spot in Japan’s export list for the first time in seven years, surpassing Hong Kong and with the United States remaining in third place. Exports of food, farm, forestry and marine... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3166259/mainland-china-was-top-importer-japanese-food-2021-surpassing-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/article/3166259/mainland-china-was-top-importer-japanese-food-2021-surpassing-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Feb 2022 10:30:14 +0000 Stand back for a nuclear reaction. I’m not talking about another Fukushima-style reactor meltdown or an attack involving nuclear weapons (hopefully), but the beginning of a renaissance of nuclear energy to help save the world from the threatened dark age of climate change. In an energy-hungry world, this will involve rethinking the role of nuclear power in generating electricity. It is a development that has considerable commercial and economic significance for Japan and China (plus perhaps... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3164298/our-energy-hungry-world-nuclear-power-making-comeback-safer?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3164298/our-energy-hungry-world-nuclear-power-making-comeback-safer?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 23 Jan 2022 19:30:21 +0000 Japan’s Pacific coast was hit early Sunday by a tsunami following a massive underwater volcanic eruption in the South Pacific island country of Tonga the previous day, prompting the weather agency to issue a tsunami warning and advisories while urging residents to move to high ground. The Japan Meteorological Agency said a three-metre tsunami may hit some of Japan’s southwestern islands including Amami Island, and a 1.2-metre tsunami was observed in the city of Amami soon before Saturday... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3163551/japans-pacific-coast-hit-tsunami-following-tonga-volcano?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3163551/japans-pacific-coast-hit-tsunami-following-tonga-volcano?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Jan 2022 17:54:45 +0000 When Japan reopens to international travel, a treat awaits hikers, “forest bathers” and those who like getting close to nature. The newly opened Michinoku Coastal Trail runs for an astonishing 1,000km (620 miles) through four prefectures – Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima – in the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu. The ends can be found in the cities of Hachinohe (in Aomori) and Soma (in Fukushima), both of which can be reached by bullet train from Tokyo. The trail passes through rugged... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3157439/how-japans-new-1000km-hiking-trail-through-earthquake-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/travel-leisure/article/3157439/how-japans-new-1000km-hiking-trail-through-earthquake-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 28 Nov 2021 23:15:11 +0000 Japan’s new prime minister Fumio Kishida on Monday defended his pronuclear energy policies, saying that restarting nuclear power plants mothballed since the 2011 Fukushima disaster was vital. Energy became a key issue during the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) recent leadership race, during which Kishida beat Taro Kono, a former vaccine minister who had spoken out against nuclear energy, to become prime minister. “It’s crucial that we restart nuclear power plants,” Kishida said as he... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3151965/japans-new-pm-fumio-kishida-defends-pro-nuclear-stance?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3151965/japans-new-pm-fumio-kishida-defends-pro-nuclear-stance?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Oct 2021 11:46:31 +0000 Roy Tomizawa’s association with the 1964 Tokyo Olympics goes back before he can remember. On October 10 that year, as the Games began, he was celebrating his first birthday in the New York City borough of Queens, while his father was working with the NBC News crew that was broadcasting the event to homes across the United States. Tomizawa, an American of Japanese descent, went on to become a historian. In September 2013, when Tokyo won the bid to host the 2020 Games, the paucity of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3142296/tale-two-tokyo-olympics-57-years-apart-one-common?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/lifestyle-culture/article/3142296/tale-two-tokyo-olympics-57-years-apart-one-common?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jul 2021 00:30:17 +0000 Trust is as essential as water for the operation of a nuclear plant. The lack of faith in the Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), the owner of the destroyed Fukushima Daiichi facility, is why there has been an outcry over plans to dump more than 1 million tonnes of treated fluid that had been contaminated off Japan’s northeast coast. Authorities have the backing of some scientists and the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, but a lack of openness in the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3129987/japan-needs-come-clean-disposal-fukushima-water?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3129987/japan-needs-come-clean-disposal-fukushima-water?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Apr 2021 17:46:15 +0000 Hong Kong’s politicians have joined international condemnation of Tokyo’s decision to dump waste water from a nuclear plant into the sea, but they remain divided on whether the city should ban food imports from Japan. They raised concerns on Thursday about food contamination from spillover effects from the wrecked Fukushima facility, after China accused the Japanese government of being “extremely irresponsible” over its plan to release 1 million tonnes of waste water into the Pacific Ocean in... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3129736/hong-kong-politicians-condemn-tokyos-decision-dump?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3129736/hong-kong-politicians-condemn-tokyos-decision-dump?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 15 Apr 2021 15:23:58 +0000 The body of a man was found following an avalanche Sunday on Mount Norikura on the border of Nagano and Gifu prefectures in central Japan, with two other people injured, local police said. Five people were caught in the avalanche that occurred around 10am on the Nagano side of the mountain but the two others were uninjured, according to the police. Two men from Shiga Prefecture, 41 and 49, who sustained light injuries, had been with the man believed dead when they were hit by the snowslide. “I... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3125407/japanese-hiker-killed-mount-norikura-avalanche?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3125407/japanese-hiker-killed-mount-norikura-avalanche?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Mar 2021 13:41:18 +0000 Amid the barren fields and empty streets, Hong Kong nuclear radiation researcher Ray Lei Yu-ting still senses the lingering unease in the town of Namie, a decade after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Sitting only a few kilometres north of the ill-fated nuclear power plant in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture, the town was devastated by the meltdown at the facility from the deadly earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. Its entire population was evacuated. Although the Japanese government in 2017... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3125203/fukushima-10-years-hong-kong-researcher-says-suffering-far?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3125203/fukushima-10-years-hong-kong-researcher-says-suffering-far?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Mar 2021 02:00:12 +0000 The triple disaster that struck northeast Japan a decade ago today is a flashbulb memory. So vivid was the news of the earthquake and tsunami and consequential the meltdown of three nuclear reactors in Fukushima that many of us can still recall exactly what we were doing at the time. The catastrophe awoke Japanese to government negligence and poor safety standards. Tough lessons have been learned, but the reluctance to trust atomic energy that has spread to many developed parts of the world... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3124920/remember-fukushima-china-pushes-safe-nuclear-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3124920/remember-fukushima-china-pushes-safe-nuclear-power?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Mar 2021 17:00:29 +0000 In Japan, efforts to archive data of the devastating 2011 quake-tsunami in the northeast are being stepped up. Documents, pictures and video footage are used to pass on lessons of the catastrophe as memories of the disaster 10 years ago fade. The collections serve as useful sources of information for researchers, educators and the general public. It’s been a decade since the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami killed nearly 20,000 people and damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3124642/race-preserve-remnants-2011-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3124642/race-preserve-remnants-2011-japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Mar 2021 12:15:05 +0000 It was a Friday when disaster struck, and all along Japan’s northeast coast, people were looking forward to the weekend. Office workers watched the clock, counting down the hours until the working week would be done – when, at 2.46pm, just as schools were about to let out, the ground began to shake. The ensuing earthquake of between magnitude 9.0 and 9.1 on March 11, 2011, was so powerful that it tilted the Earth’s axis and shifted Japan’s main island eastward by up to four metres. The tsunami... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3124725/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-disaster-10-years-tsunami?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3124725/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-disaster-10-years-tsunami?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 10 Mar 2021 00:00:21 +0000 For some survivors, the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami disaster will bring back memories of the sexual abuse they suffered a decade ago. This story is part of a series on women’s issues in China and Asia to coincide with International Women’s Day. As Japan prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that claimed more than 18,000 lives in 2011, a new documentary has shed light on a little-known tragedy that took place in the aftermath of the disaster – the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3124532/how-japan-2011-quake-tsunami-survivors-faced-secondary?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3124532/how-japan-2011-quake-tsunami-survivors-faced-secondary?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:00:23 +0000 Japanese bar owner Aoi Hoshino on Sunday swept up glass from whiskey bottles smashed in a strong earthquake the night before, as she recalled the devastating quake that hit the Fukushima area in 2011. The 7.3 magnitude quake struck before midnight, cracking walls, shattering windows and setting off a landslide in Fukushima, the area closest to the epicentre. At least 121 people were injured, NHK national television said, including several who suffered fractures. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3121691/japan-earthquake-evokes-memories-2011-fukushima-disaster?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3121691/japan-earthquake-evokes-memories-2011-fukushima-disaster?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Feb 2021 06:12:56 +0000 A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck northern Japan early on Monday, but no tsunami warning was issued. The Meteorological Agency said in a statement it was considered to be one of the aftershocks of the 2011 powerful quake that triggered tsunami waves in the north-east, killing about 18,500 people. The seismic centre of the quake that jolted the region at 2.23am (5.23pm GMT on Sunday) was off Aomori prefecture at a depth of 43 kilometres, the agency said. There were no immediate reports of... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3114730/magnitude-65-earthquake-jolts-northern-japan-no-threat-tsunami?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3114730/magnitude-65-earthquake-jolts-northern-japan-no-threat-tsunami?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Dec 2020 23:47:46 +0000 “On the evening of June 15, 1896, the northeast coast of Hondo, the main island of Japan, was struck by a great earthquake wave (tsunami), which was more destructive of life and property than any earthquake convulsion of this century in that empire.” This was perhaps the first time the word “tsunami” was introduced to English users – in an article in the September 1896 issue of National Geographic magazine, given in parentheses and in italics as the Japanese word for “great earthquake... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3107591/when-tsunami-was-introduced-english-language?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3107591/when-tsunami-was-introduced-english-language?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 02 Nov 2020 22:15:14 +0000 2.5/5 stars The first mainstream film to dramatise the lives of frontline workers who dealt with the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Setsuro Wakamatsu’s Fukushima 50 is an earnest, if somewhat toothless, celebration of those who risked everything to avert a reactor meltdown. Ken Watanabe and Koichi Sato headline this big-budget adaptation of Ryusho Kadota’s non-fiction book, On the Brink: The Inside Story of Fukushima Daiichi. The film wastes no time setting up characters or... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3090106/fukushima-50-film-review-drama-about-nuclear-workers?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3090106/fukushima-50-film-review-drama-about-nuclear-workers?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 22 Jun 2020 10:13:48 +0000 The Covid-19 pandemic has been spreading fear worldwide: fear of being infected and, in the worst case, dying; fear of losing loved ones; fear of being laid off or devastated financially, and; fear of being isolated for a long time. Wherever you are in the world, this pandemic evokes these fears. Japan is no exception. Although my home country has so far escaped having a massive number infected and killed by the disease, people have been living with these fears since the first infection was... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3081766/japanese-stigma-sick-much-greater-fear-coronavirus-itself?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3081766/japanese-stigma-sick-much-greater-fear-coronavirus-itself?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 29 Apr 2020 01:30:10 +0000 The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster, which happened nine years ago yesterday as a result of a devastating tsunami, is still having a negative impact on the environment. According to the latest radiation survey from Greenpeace, conducted over three weeks in October and November last year, radiation levels at some spots in Fukushima still exceed the official decontamination long-term target – even as the Japanese government says the situation is normalising. Some high-level hotspots... https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3074507/nine-years-fukushima-radiation-levels-still-high-ahead-tokyo?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/3074507/nine-years-fukushima-radiation-levels-still-high-ahead-tokyo?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Mar 2020 23:10:07 +0000 Japan on Wednesday pays tribute to the more than 15,000 people killed in a powerful earthquake and resulting tsunami that also caused the nation’s worst nuclear accident nine years ago, but fears over the spread of coronavirus have caused a number of events to be cancelled or scaled back. A state-sponsored memorial ceremony that had been held every year in Tokyo since 2012 was cancelled for the first time, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saying he will observe a moment of silence at 2:46pm, the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3074590/japan-scales-back-remembrance-9-year-anniversary-triple?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3074590/japan-scales-back-remembrance-9-year-anniversary-triple?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Mar 2020 02:48:45 +0000 As Japan recorded a third death among passengers who were on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the limitations of Tokyo’s response to the outbreak are becoming clear; it has all been very ad hoc. Japan initially imposed an entry ban only on Chinese passport-holders from Hubei province (whose capital, Wuhan, is where the outbreak started) and foreigners who had been in Hubei up to 14 days before. The ban was later extended to include the neighbouring Chinese province of Zhejiang but it was... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3052283/japan-caught-out-covid-19-tokyo-olympics-will-be-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3052283/japan-caught-out-covid-19-tokyo-olympics-will-be-challenge?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Feb 2020 03:00:10 +0000 The novel coronavirus is spreading silently and invisibly through its human carriers, inflicting fear and sickness. Likewise, malaise can spread through the “carriers” of the global economy: the supply chains that link myriad manufacturing and service-sector firms around the world. These supply chains are the circulatory or nervous systems of the global economy and, like their equivalents in the human body, receive little or no attention until things go wrong. Once they do – which is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3050728/coronavirus-chaos-lays-bare-price-uncertainty-connected-global?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3050728/coronavirus-chaos-lays-bare-price-uncertainty-connected-global?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 16 Feb 2020 17:00:18 +0000 Members of the 2011 World Cup-winning Japan women’s national football team have been selected as torch-bearers for the “Grand Start” of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Torch Relay, the Games’ organisers announced on Tuesday. The relay is set to take place at the J-Village National Training Centre in the Fukushima Prefecture on March 26, 2020, around four months before the Games begin. The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympics Games confirmed the move was based on the team’s... https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3042457/tokyo-2020-world-cup-winning-japan-womens-football-team-kick?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3042457/tokyo-2020-world-cup-winning-japan-womens-football-team-kick?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 17 Dec 2019 09:27:35 +0000 Three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco) were on Thursday acquitted on charges of failing to prevent the Fukushima nuclear disaster, triggered by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. At the Tokyo District Court, former Tepco chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 79, along with former vice presidents Ichiro Takekuro, 73, and Sakae Muto, 69, had argued they could not have foreseen the massive tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi power plant and... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3028048/japanese-court-acquits-former-tepco-bosses-over-fukushima?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3028048/japanese-court-acquits-former-tepco-bosses-over-fukushima?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 19 Sep 2019 05:24:49 +0000 A long-held belief in Japan that sightings of deep-sea fish foretell major earthquakes is simply a superstition, according to a research team from two universities. The researchers from Tokai University and the University of Shizuoka reached the conclusion after comparing earthquake records with cases in which deep-sea fish were found beached or caught in fishing nets over around 90 years. The belief that deep-sea fish sightings are connected with earthquakes has its roots in a mermaid legend... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3022669/japanese-belief-link-between-deep-sea-fish-sightings-and-quakes?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3022669/japanese-belief-link-between-deep-sea-fish-sightings-and-quakes?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 13 Aug 2019 15:56:03 +0000 By Dong Sun-hwa Fans of K-pop boy band Exo are reportedly demanding the cancellation of the group’s December gigs near Fukushima in Japan, the site of a nuclear disaster in 2011. According to a schedule released on the band’s official fan site on Monday, Exo are set to stage concerts on December 20 and 21 at the Sekisui Heim Super Arena in Miyagi prefecture. But the announcement has fuelled concerns among fans as the venue is only about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the disaster-hit area. They... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3020052/fans-exo-demand-k-pop-bands-japan-shows-near-fukushima?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3020052/fans-exo-demand-k-pop-bands-japan-shows-near-fukushima?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 25 Jul 2019 14:00:10 +0000 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is going all-out to restore confidence in nuclear power. With Tokyo hosting the Olympic Games next year, he is eager to prove that there are no longer risks posed by the plant in Fukushima that had three meltdowns when an earthquake and tsunami struck eight years ago. He cut an assured image in a suit during a recent visit to the plant, a contrast to his last trip in 2014 when he wore protective head-to-toe clothing to guard against radiation. But even with... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3007086/restore-confidence-nuclear-power?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/3007086/restore-confidence-nuclear-power?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 21 Apr 2019 13:50:14 +0000 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe toured the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant complex and areas in the vicinity on Sunday to check on progress in reconstruction from the 2011 nuclear crisis. His visit comes after Japan’s Olympics minister Yoshitaka Sakurada stepped down last week over remarks he made deemed offensive to people affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which also triggered one of world’s worst nuclear disasters. “The government will do its utmost to rebuild (this area),... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3006105/japan-pm-shinzo-abe-tours-fukushima-check-areas-affected-2011?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3006105/japan-pm-shinzo-abe-tours-fukushima-check-areas-affected-2011?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 14 Apr 2019 10:44:00 +0000 With flowers, silent prayers and tearful tributes, Japan on Monday marked the eighth anniversary of a crippling earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that devastated its northeastern coast and left some 18,500 people dead or missing. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, lawmakers and family members who lost their loved ones in the disaster bowed their heads in prayer at a ceremony in Tokyo at 2.46pm – the moment that the magnitude-9.0 quake struck. “We can’t help but feel sorrow when we think about the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2189597/japan-holds-minute-silence-victims-2011-earthquake-and-tsunami?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2189597/japan-holds-minute-silence-victims-2011-earthquake-and-tsunami?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 11 Mar 2019 14:04:25 +0000 Japan’s social media has gone into nervous overdrive following the discovery of a number of deep-sea fish traditionally thought to be harbingers of natural disaster. On Monday, an oarfish measuring nearly four metres from snout to tail was found tangled in a fishing net off the port of Imizu, in the north-coast prefecture of Toyama. The fish was already dead but was later taken to the nearby Uozu Aquarium to be studied. Two more of the slender, snake-like fish were discovered in Toyama Bay nine... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2184498/rare-sightings-oarfish-put-japanese-high-alert-earthquake?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2184498/rare-sightings-oarfish-put-japanese-high-alert-earthquake?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:00:15 +0000 Japanese authorities on Wednesday approved for the first time an extension to the 40-year operating life of one of the nuclear power plants affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster. Japan’s nuclear watchdog allowed an extension of up to 20 years beyond the November 28 limit for Japan Atomic Power Co.’s Tokai No. 2 plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, north east of Tokyo. The plant uses the same boiling water reactor as the crisis-hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant. The move, together with... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2172182/japanese-nuclear-watchdog-approves-operating-life-extension?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2172182/japanese-nuclear-watchdog-approves-operating-life-extension?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 07 Nov 2018 14:56:34 +0000 Japan’s government on Friday rejected calls from a United Nations rights expert to halt the return of women and children to areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster over radiation fears. UN special rapporteur Baskut Tuncak on Thursday warned that people felt they were “being forced to return to areas that are unsafe, including those with radiation levels above what the government previously considered safe”. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, Japan’s government lifted its standard... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2170444/japan-rejects-un-call-stop-women-children-returning-fukushima?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2170444/japan-rejects-un-call-stop-women-children-returning-fukushima?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Oct 2018 13:16:10 +0000 The recent Netflix series Dark Tourist is a grimy window into areas scarred by tragedy, providing a perspective as rare as it is compelling – but a controversial Japan-set entry in the series may have gone too far. The country’s Reconstruction Agency is set to hold talks with the Fukushima prefectural government about a unified response to the second episode in the series, which looked at a tour for foreign visitors to some of the areas worst affected by the 2011 tsunami, earthquake and... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2162902/fukushima-episode-netflixs-dark-tourist-sparks-concern-japan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2162902/fukushima-episode-netflixs-dark-tourist-sparks-concern-japan?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Sep 2018 09:30:30 +0000 The city of Fukushima in Japan will remove a statue of a child clad in a protective suit over criticism that it misleads the public into believing that local people, hit by a nuclear crisis in 2011, need to wear such gear, according to its mayor. “We set up the statue as a symbol of people striving for reconstruction but have come to judge that the statue is not accepted by many citizens,” mayor Hiroshi Kohata said on Tuesday. The city, which erected the 6.2-metre statue dubbed Sun Child near... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2161744/controversial-fukushima-statue-child-radiation-suit-be-removed?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2161744/controversial-fukushima-statue-child-radiation-suit-be-removed?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Aug 2018 14:35:53 +0000 Discussing the weather with an Englishman is, you might think, like talking to an Englishman about soccer, or beer, or gardening: stereotypical par for a stereotypical course. But during two conversations with journalist and award-winning author Richard Lloyd Parry, weather, often in its most extreme forms, becomes a subject of philosophical, spiritual, political and national significance. Nor is there anything narrowly English about Lloyd Parry’s interest, or indeed the man himself. Born in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2161028/living-edge-british-reporter-japans-stoicism-face?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2161028/living-edge-british-reporter-japans-stoicism-face?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Aug 2018 00:00:15 +0000 It knocked the Earth 16.5cm (six-and-a-half inches) off its axis and moved Japan four metres (13 feet) closer to the US: an account of the 2011 tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people in Japan has won Britain’s Folio prize for literature. Book review: Ghosts of the Tsunami’s heart-wrenching look at Japan tragedy from survivors’ view leaves a lasting impression Richard Lloyd Parry’s Ghosts of the Tsunami took the £20,000 (US$27,000) prize ahead of several high-profile fiction competitors,... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2145384/literary-prize-win-powerful-book-about-2011-japan-tsunami-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2145384/literary-prize-win-powerful-book-about-2011-japan-tsunami-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 May 2018 05:05:15 +0000 Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Sunday rejected for the time being Tokyo’s official request that the city lift restrictions on Japanese food imports brought in after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, citing public safety. The chief executive also reaffirmed that the city had been strictly enforcing sanctions against North Korea, during her meeting at Government House with Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono, as he wrapped up his two-day visit to Hong Kong on Sunday. Lam expressed... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2138841/hong-kong-will-not-lift-post-fukushima-ban-some-japanese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2138841/hong-kong-will-not-lift-post-fukushima-ban-some-japanese?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 25 Mar 2018 22:00:00 +0000 A Japanese court on Tuesday ordered the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to compensate relatives of a 102-year-old man who killed himself at the prospect of fleeing his home. The Fukushima District Court ordered Tokyo Electric Co (TEPCO) to pay 15.2 million yen (US$143,400) in damages to the family of Fumio Okubo, according to their lawyer Yukio Yasuda. Okubo was the oldest resident of Iitate village, 40km (25 miles) from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant on Japan’s... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2133998/fukushima-operator-told-compensate-suicide-102-year-old?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/2133998/fukushima-operator-told-compensate-suicide-102-year-old?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 20 Feb 2018 10:22:47 +0000 Christmas Day saw dozens of masked men descend on Futaba, in the northeast of Japan’s main island of Honshu. They moved deliberately along deserted streets, clearing triffid-like undergrowth and preparing to demolish derelict buildings. Their arrival marked the beginning of an estimated four-year government-led project to clean up Futaba, which has succumbed to nature since its residents deserted almost seven years ago. Futaba is one of two towns (the other being neighbouring Okuma) on which... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2130359/fukushima-heroes-both-sides-pacific-still?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2130359/fukushima-heroes-both-sides-pacific-still?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jan 2018 08:15:15 +0000 I used to live in Fukushima with my husband and our child, in a fantastic natural environment with a strong local community. That was until the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 destroyed coastal communities and killed tens of thousands of people. The day after it hit, there were constant aftershocks. It gave us another massive scare when the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exploded. We decided to evacuate to Western Japan to protect our child. The government raised the level of... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2114543/fukushima-evacuees-have-been-abandoned-japanese-government?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2114543/fukushima-evacuees-have-been-abandoned-japanese-government?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 11 Oct 2017 01:00:00 +0000 The deadly tsunami that struck northeast Japan in 2011 has carried almost 300 species of sea life thousands of kilometres across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the United States. In what experts are calling the longest maritime migration ever recorded, an estimated one million creatures – including crustaceans, sea slugs and sea worms – made the 7,725km journey on a flotilla of tsunami debris. “This has turned out to be one of the biggest unplanned natural experiments in marine biology –... https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2113368/2011-tsunami-carried-million-japanese-sea-creatures?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/2113368/2011-tsunami-carried-million-japanese-sea-creatures?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 29 Sep 2017 05:53:47 +0000 Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry Jonathan Cape 4 Stars On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake hit Japan, setting off a tsunami that left 18,500 people dead. It was the single greatest loss of life in the country since the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki in the dying days of the second world war. The earthquake, the fourth most powerful in the history of seismology, knocked the Earth 10 inches off its axis and moved Japan four feet closer to America. The subsequent tsunami, with... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2105213/book-review-ghosts-tsunamis-heart-wrenching-look-japan-tragedy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2105213/book-review-ghosts-tsunamis-heart-wrenching-look-japan-tragedy?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 03 Aug 2017 04:01:56 +0000 Vegalta Sendai were preparing to kick off their first ever season in Japan’s top division as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck their region. Expected to battle relegation, the team instead went on a remarkable unbeaten run after the tragedy, powered by a determination among players and fans that they had to give something back to people of their province whose lives had been devastated. The following season, they went even better, challenging for the title until the very last day of the... https://www.scmp.com/sport/soccer/article/2087002/hong-kong-raised-film-makers-documentary-chronicles-how-football-team?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/sport/soccer/article/2087002/hong-kong-raised-film-makers-documentary-chronicles-how-football-team?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Apr 2017 03:00:19 +0000 Images and memories of the aftermath of March 11, 2011, come to Rob Gilhooly unbidden. Without warning, he will again be confronted in his mind’s eye with a fishing boat deposited atop of a five-storey hospital building by the tsunami triggered by the magnitude 9 Great East Japan Earthquake. On other occasions it will be glassy-eyed children and pensioners sitting on the floor of a classroom in a school serving as an emergency evacuation centre, or the clatter of helicopters bringing in the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2077053/photojournalist-revisits-horrors-japans-2011-quake-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/2077053/photojournalist-revisits-horrors-japans-2011-quake-new?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 11 Mar 2017 02:00:45 +0000 The sophistication of “In The Wake”, a sensitive, mournful photographic exhibition focusing on the 2011 tsunami that devastated part of Japan’s northeast, lies more in what it doesn’t show than what it does. One would expect a selection of photojournalistic works documenting the event, and its aftermath. But Anne Nishimura Morse and Anne Havinga, curators of the New York show, cast their net much wider to include artistic responses to the disaster, historical context, and geographical... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1925637/hiroshima-fukushima-big-picture-japans-tsunami-tragedy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1925637/hiroshima-fukushima-big-picture-japans-tsunami-tragedy?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00:40 +0000 As Japan prepares to mark the fourth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, scientists have warned that stress levels in the tectonic plates that triggered the magnitude-9 tremor are once again building to worrying levels. Writing in the British scientific journal Nature Geoscience, the international team of researchers has concluded that while the stresses that built up in the plates were released in the March 2011 quake – which triggered a tsunami and the crisis at the Fukushima... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1704334/fresh-earthquake-fears-japan-scientists-warn-plate-stress-levels?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1704334/fresh-earthquake-fears-japan-scientists-warn-plate-stress-levels?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Feb 2015 04:30:00 +0000