The Japanese Red Cross said on Wednesday an entire year has been lost in rebuilding tsunami-ravaged areas of the country because the central government and local authorities had failed to agree on a "master plan."
It also said that the slow pace of reconstruction was deepening mental suffering and called for intensified efforts to bring the region back to life.
"The central government has proposed different scenarios, but they were met with strong opposition from local governments and also people affected directly by the earthquake and tsunami," Japanese Red Cross President Tadateru Konoe told Reuters alongside a press event marking the anniversary. (Reuters)
Japan Red Cross says whole year wasted in post-tsunami
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Contaminated water may still be leaking into Pacific
A group of researchers has reported that radiation-contaminated water could still be leaking into the sea from the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Data on radioactive cesium in the sea near the plant nearly a year after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered multiple meltdowns show a slower than expected decline in concentrations, according to the group, which includes Michio Aoyama of the Meteorological Research Institute.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said it does not believe contaminated water is currently leaking into the sea. (Japan Times)
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Big One 'likely to be shallower'
The focus of any major earthquake that strikes beneath the Tokyo metropolitan area is likely to be shallower than previously thought, a government project team said Wednesday.
The edge between the ground plate and the Philippine Sea plate underneath Tokyo is 5 or 10 km shallower than earlier projections, which could lead to Tokyo suffering a quake with an intensity of 7, greater than previously anticipated, the team said.
The team of scientists from the University of Tokyo and other organizations determined the correct depth of the tectonic plate junction by using a new quake-observing technique. (Japan Times)
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Police raid 2channel in drug case
The police have searched 10 places related to the 2channel online bulletin board on suspicion that its operators assisted drug deals by failing to delete a post soliciting such transactions, according to sources.
The Metropolitan Police Department searched the 10 places, including a Sapporo-based computer company, on dates ranging from November last year to this month.
It is rare for the operator of an online bulletin board to be subjected to a criminal investigations for a message posted on it, observers said. (Yomiuri)
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Govt may vaccinate everyone in flu epidemic
The government plans to vaccinate the nation's entire population if a new, highly virulent and infectious strain of influenza is expected to become epidemic in Japan.
The government aims to establish a system in fiscal 2013 to supply vaccine for 130 million people in collaboration with domestic pharmaceutical companies and other organizations.
The government plans to decide on a special measures bill at a Cabinet meeting Friday to submit to the current Diet session.
According to the government's worst-case scenario, as many as 640,000 people would die in the nation if a new, highly virulent and infectious strain of flu spread in Japan. (Yomiuri)
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23 remote isles put under state ownership
The government has placed 23 remote islands under state ownership after finishing necessary legal procedures last August, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Wednesday.
The 23 islands, which are used to determine Japan's exclusive economic zones, do not include remote isles around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea off Okinawa Prefecture. China also claims the Senkaku Islands.
This time, the designated remote islands include those under the jurisdiction of the village of Ogasawara, Tokyo; Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture; and Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture. (Yomiuri)
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Panel urges colleges to make students study harder
Colleges and universities that make a determined effort to have their students study harder should receive preferential financial treatment, including government subsidies, according to a draft of proposals released by a panel Wednesday.
The panel, which is under the wing of the Central Council for Education, evidently hopes its proposals will encourage colleges that make greater efforts in this respect.
The proposals will be studied by the council's subcommittee for colleges and universities and presented as recommendations to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry. The ministry plans to implement the proposals as early as in fiscal 2013. (Yomiuri)
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Disaster claimed 1,046 minors
A total of 1,046 people aged 19 or younger died or went missing in the three prefectures hit hardest by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and nearly two-thirds of the victims were aged 60 or older, according to the National Police Agency.
The agency on Tuesday released statistics on the number of people missing in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures by age and gender for the first time since the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The NPA said 15,786 people were confirmed to have died in the disaster as of the end of February. Of them, 14,308, or 91 percent, drowned, 145 were killed by fire and 667 died from other causes, such as being crushed or freezing to death, according to the NPA. (Yomiuri)
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Cop 'faked drunk-driving evidence'
A police officer with more than 20 years of experience checking for impaired drivers was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of forging information on a Breathalyzer test, according to Osaka prefectural police.
Kiyoto Yamashita, a 57-year-old assistant police inspector at Sennan Police Station in Osaka, was arrested for tampering with evidence as well as drafting and issuing an official document with a forged signature.
The police suspected he drank alcohol himself and used his own breath to obtain incriminating test results. (Yomiuri)
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Two women found dead in Tachikawa apartment
Police said Thursday that the bodies of two women found in an apartment in the Tokyo suburb of Tachikawa appear to be a mother and her daughter.
According to TBS, the two bodies were found on Wednesday afternoon. Welfare officials discovered the bodies just before 6 p.m. after not having heard from the two residents in awhile. Police said the occupants were a woman in her 90s, who was suffering from dementia, and her daughter who was in her 60s. (Japan Today)
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Scientists survey seabed fractured by Japan quake
Scientists on Thursday launched a mission to the seabed off Japan where a massive quake triggered last year's devastating tsunami, to get their first proper look at the buckled ocean floor.
Researchers from Germany and Japan are sending high-tech vehicles to probe the seabed up to 7,000 metres (23,000 feet) below the surface where the massive seismic shock hit last March.
"We want to deploy instruments on the sea floor and also map the area to see the large changes caused by the earthquake," said Gerold Wefer, who is leading the project.
His team said the data gathered from the month-long mission covering a rupture zone stretching hundreds of kilometres (miles) would help them understand the mechanism of huge quakes and the tsunamis they can spawn. (AFP)
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Japan's economy shrinks at annual 0.7% pace, less than initially estimated
Japan's economy contracted less than the government's initial estimate last quarter, improving prospects for the recovery from last year's earthquake.
Gross domestic product shrank an annualized 0.7 percent in the three months ended Dec. 31, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today, compared with a preliminary estimate of a 2.3 percent contraction. The median forecast of 21 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.6 percent contraction. (Bloomberg)
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China, TPP and Japan's future in Asia
For evidence of China's vision for an integrated East Asian political economy-binding China, Japan, and Korea-look at remarks of China's Commerce Minister yesterday in Beijing. Speaking at a press conference during the ongoing Chinese National People's Congress, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming's said of that Japanese entry into negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact, if it happens, "Should not be allowed to influence progress on other types of cooperation in the East Asian region."
Translation: Japan should give priority to and focus first on the talks being promoted by Beijing to create a regional Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which would closely bind China, Japan, and Korea. The next major negotiations of this FTA be held in Beijing in May. (AFP)
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Tourism spending in Japan expected to rebound
Almost one year since a devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami struck Japan, a global travel trade group predicted that the island country's tourism industry would make a full recovery in 2012 amid a global rise in travel spending.
An economic analysis issued Wednesday by the World Travel & Tourism Council predicted that international tourism would generate $129 billion in spending in Japan in 2012, compared with $128.5 billion generated in 2010.
The earthquake, which struck March 11, 2011, triggered a tsunami and ensuing fears over damage to a key nuclear power plant in Japan. Tourism spending in the country fell by 3.9% to $123.5 billion for the entire year, according to the tourism council. (Los Angeles Times)
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Tokyo stocks close down
Tokyo stocks have lost 0.63 per cent as concerns over slowing growth in China eclipsed better-than-expected US economic data, brokers say.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange declined 60.96 points to close at 9,637.63 on Tuesday while the broader Topix index of all first-section issues shed 0.66 per cent or 5.51 points to 827.35.
A day after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the government was targeting 7.5 per cent growth this year, compared with eight per cent growth targets for each of the past seven years, Asian markets remained on edge. (ninemsn.com.au)
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Japan: One year after the quake and tsunami
The Japanese economy and stock market are slowly on the mend. Japan's government reported Thursday that gross domestic product shrunk at an annualized rate of 0.7% in the fourth quarter, a revision from the 2.3% contraction that was originally reported.
While that's obviously still not fantastic news, there are increased hopes that rebuilding efforts in Japan will lead to economic expansion again in the first half of this year. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 (N225) index, meanwhile, has rebounded sharply from post-disaster lows. The Nikkei is up 20% from its 52-week low in November.
But the Nikkei is still about 6% below the level it was at on March 10, 2011. By way of comparison, the S&P 500 (SPX) is up 5% during the same time frame. (CNN)
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Old-fashioned eats: Japan's soul food
We know it's obvious, but Tokyo is home to the best Japanese restaurants on the planet. Countless thousands of them, in fact.
So many, it's hard to know where to start. From the outside everything seems so sleek and modern, you feel you could be anywhere.
Behind its modern facade, though, Tokyo still has many restaurants where tradition rules, both inside and out -- in the kitchen, on the table and in that unmistakable ethos that you can only find in Japan. Here are five all-time classics to try if you want to sample Japan's true soul food. (CNN)
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Soccer: Top-seeded Socceroos hope to avoid Japan
The high-flying Socceroos enter Asia's year-long final qualifying round as top seeds in their quest for a third consecutive World Cup finals berth in Brazil in 2014.
Their table-topping performance in the previous round, capped by a come-from-behind 4-2 win over Saudi Arabia in Melbourne, has elevated them to No.20 in FIFA's latest world rankings.
The pay-off is Asia's top billing, which means they will avoid second-ranked South Korea, who are automatically top seed in the second of two five-nation qualifying groups. (theroar.com.au)
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Japan prepares to commemorate Tohoku tragedy
This Sunday is the first anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the coastline of northeastern Japan and killed more than 15,000 people.
In January, the central government announced that it would hold a memorial service on March 11 at the National Theater, which faces the Imperial Palace grounds in Tokyo. The ceremony will be attended by the prime minister and "bereaved family members." Normally, the Emperor and Empress would attend a ceremony of such significance, but in view of the Emperor's continued health problems since his recent heart surgery it now seems unlikely that he will be present. Some foreign ambassadors may also be in the auditorium, which can hold around 1,500 people. (Japan Times)
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Yanai, Japan's wealthiest man, ranks 88th on Forbes' list of world's richest
Japan's richest man, Tadashi Yanai, has been ranked 88th on the Forbes business magazine list of the world's wealthiest people.
Forbes said Thursday that Yanai, founder and president of Fast Retailing Co., which operates the Uniqlo casual clothing chain, is tied for 88th on the list with a net worth of $10 billion, up from 122nd last year. He is the only Japanese on Forbes' top 100 list for this year.
Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim Helu, with a net worth of $69 billion, is at the top, followed by Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. (Japan Times)
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