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Mari Yamaguchi

Local residents flee to the compound of an elementary school for taking shelter, after a tsunami warning was issued following an earthquake in Yamada, Iwate prefecture, northeastern Japan, Wednesday, March 14, 2012. A series of earthquakes rattled Tokyo and northeast Japan late Wednesday evening but caused no apparent damage or injury in the same region hit by last year's devastating tsunami. (AP Photo/Iwate Nippo via Kyodo News)

Strong quakes shake Japan

Last updated Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - 9:34am

TOKYO -- A series of earthquakes rattled Tokyo and northeast Japan late Wednesday evening but caused no apparent damage or injury in the same region hit by last year's devastating tsunami.

Earthquake, earthquakes, Japan, Natural disaster, Tsunami, International Read more Comments

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2011 file photo, a kimono-clad elderly woman walks across a street in Tokyo. Japan's rapid aging means the national population of 128 million will shrink by one-third by 2060 and seniors will account for 40 percent of people, placing a greater burden on the shrinking work force population to support the social security and tax systems. The population estimate released Monday, Jan. 30 by the Health and Welfare Ministry paints a grim future. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa, File)

Japan's population declining at rapid rate

Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press

Last updated Monday, January 30, 2012 - 10:27am

TOKYO -- Japan's rapid aging means the national population of 128 million will shrink by one-third by 2060 and seniors will account for 40 percent of people, placing a greater burden on the shrinking work force population to support the social security and tax systems.

Japan, Population, International Read more Comments

FILE - This Nov. 12, 2011 photo shows a view of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Japan. The tsunami-devastated nuclear power plant has reached a stable state of "cold shutdown" and is no longer leaking substantial amounts of radiation, Japan's prime minister announced Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, marking a milestone nine months after the March 11 tsunami sent three reactors at the plant into meltdowns in the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, Pool, File)

Japan's tsunami-hit nuclear plant called 'stable'

Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press

Last updated Friday, December 16, 2011 - 10:35am

TOKYO -- Japan's prime minister announced Friday that the country's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant has achieved a stable state of "cold shutdown," a crucial step toward the eventual lifting of evacuation orders and closing of the plant.

Earthquake, Japan, Japanese tsunami, Tsunami, International Read more Comments

In this photo taken Friday, April 15, 2011, Japanese police officers in protective suits carry a victim at a tsunami-devastated area in the town of Namie, as towers of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant are seen in the distance at top right in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. The Japanese government failed to adequately utilize radiation threat forecasts in the early days of its nuclear crisis and allowed thousands of residents, including hundreds of schoolchildren, to remain in areas it had ample reason to believe put them in serious danger. Eight thousand residents of Namie were not informed that they should move further away until March 16, almost a week after the disaster, despite predictions on the first day that a radioactive plume would drift across the town. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Japan ignored own radiation forecasts

Eric Talmadge, Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press

Last updated Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 10:30am

NAMIE, Japan -- Japan's system to forecast radiation threats was working from the moment its nuclear crisis began. As officials planned a venting operation certain to release radioactivity into the air, the system predicted Karino Elementary School would be directly in the path of the plume emerging from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.

But the prediction helped no one. Nobody acted on it.

Earthquake, Japan, Nuclear, Radiation, Tsunami, International Read more Comments

(The Associated Press) Chinese human rights activist Feng Zhenghu holds a laptop computer as speaks to The Associated Press near the passport control at Terminal 1 at the Narita International Airport in Narita, near Tokyo on Dec. 18. He sleeps on a bench and depends on passers-by for food. He has a valid Chinese passport and a visa to enter Japan. But he's staying to protest against Chinese authorities who have refused eight times since June to let him return to his homeland. "I'm a Chinese citizen, and I just want to go back to China. It's outrageous that I can't return to my own country," he said.

Barred Chinese activist camps out in Tokyo airport

Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - 6:42pm

NARITA, Japan -- Feng Zhenghu has been camping out at Tokyo's international airport for 50 days, sleeping on a blue plastic bench and surviving on handouts of crackers and noodles from passers-by.

Travel, International Read more Comments