Researchers say Mount Aso discharged around 510,000 tons of ash and volcanic rock when it erupted on Saturday. The figure is more than 10 times that of an eruption in September of last year and is on a par with the eruption of 1979. Researchers at Kumamoto University and other parties calculated the amount of […]
A main building of a castle in Kumamoto has been opened to media for the first time since strong earthquakes hit the southwestern prefecture in April. The jolts caused damage to buildings and stone walls of Kumamoto Castle, a historical landmark of the prefecture. They include 13 structures designated as important cultural properties. Thirty percent […]
The president of Tokyo Electric Power Company has apologized for an extensive blackout that struck Tokyo on Wednesday. President Naomi Hirose visited the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and met with Minister Hiroshige Seko on Thursday. Power transmission cables at a TEPCO facility just outside Tokyo caught fire and caused the blackout that affected […]
A team from the Yokohama municipal government launched an extraordinary on-site inspection on Tuesday of a hospital in the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, following two elderly male inpatients’ poisoning deaths in suspected serial killings. The raid by the team comprising about 10 experts including doctors and pharmacists will mainly target facilities on […]
There was a large power outage in Tokyo on Wednesday afternoon. Tokyo Electric Power Company says at one point about 350,000 households were affected. The utility says a fire broke out at one of its facilities near Tokyo. The utility is investigating whether the fire caused the outage. No injuries were reported. The power failure […]
Still reeling from a series of earthquakes beginning in April, Kumamoto Prefecture is once again experiencing nature’s fury, this time in the form of Mount Aso’s eruption Saturday. Besides being on high alert for another volcanic eruption, Kumamoto residents are growing increasingly concerned about the long-term prospects for the prefecture’s tourism industry, which has yet […]
President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte will pay an official visit to Japan on October 25-27, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. During the visit, Duterte is set to meet with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “The government of Japan sincerely welcomes the visit of the president [of Philippines] and hopes […]
Police marching bands from around the world have paraded through Tokyo’s upscale Ginza district before an audience of about 60,000 people. The annual World Police Band Concert took place in Japan for the first time in 4 years on Monday, a national holiday. Participants included bands from police headquarters across Japan, a group from the […]
The first snow of the season has fallen on the plains of Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido. Weather officials said they confirmed the snowfall in the city of Wakkanai at around Thursday midnight. The city saw snow 15 days earlier than usual and 18 earlier than last year. It’s the second-earliest snowfall in the […]
The Japanese government decided Tuesday to consider allowing skilled foreign workers to work in the agricultural sector in certain special economic zones, while compiling plans to allow certain foreign nursing care workers to provide in-home care services as soon as next year. The moves target two industries suffering severe labor shortages in the face of […]
