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January 21, 2025
 

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DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

A training session for a new reporting system that the Japan Coast Guard began operating on Saturday.
JAPAN
Jan 18, 2025
Japan Coast Guard launches emergency video reporting system
The coast guard hopes the new system will improve life-saving measures in the event of emergencies at sea.
Roxana Oshiro and her husband gather their belongings in front of their house in Furukawacho, in Kobe's Suma Ward, after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Jan 17, 2025
The efforts to bridge the disaster information gap, 30 years on
Disaster information didn't reach many non-Japanese speakers after the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck. Thirty years later, has the situation improved?
Self-Defense Forces members search for victims in Kobe's Nagata Ward on Jan. 28, 1995, in the wake of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.
JAPAN / Politics
Jan 16, 2025
Hanshin quake sparked changes to Japan's disaster response policies
Having outlined the Self-Defense Forces' active role and support for victims, the government now aims to set up a new central agency for disaster relief.
A mirror reflects a collapsed house in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Dec. 10, nearly one year after a major earthquake struck nearby on New Year's Day in 2024.
JAPAN / Explainer
Jan 14, 2025
Miyazaki quake falls short of triggering Nankai Trough megaquake advisory
Though Monday's temblor struck a similar area to one in August that sparked the first advisory, no such alert was issued.
Staff Sgt. Akihiro Yamamoto reflects on the Great Hanshin Earthquake while looking at materials at the Ground Self-Defense Force's Itami base in city of Itami, Hyogo Prefecture in December.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 14, 2025
How the SDF has earned trust through disaster relief efforts
Public sentiment toward the SDF was markedly colder during the Great Hanshin Earthquake, service personnel recall.
Participants observe a minute of silence for the victims of the Jan. 17, 1995, earthquake during an event for the the Coming-of-Age Day in Kobe on Monday.
JAPAN
Jan 14, 2025
20-year-olds celebrated in Kobe 30 years after earthquake
A minute of silence was observed for the victims of the Jan. 17, 1995, earthquake.
Rescue workers search a flooded area during the aftermath of Typhoon Hagibis, which caused severe floods at the Chikuma River, in the city of Nagano in October 2019.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 12, 2025
Disaster-hardened Japan faces enormous costs from climate change
The total cost in climate damages for the country through 2050 could amount to ¥952 trillion if more ambitious action isn't taken.
Palm trees burned by the Palisades Fire along the shore in Malibu, California, at sunrise on Friday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jan 11, 2025
‘We’re in a new era’: How climate change is supercharging disasters
Extreme weather events — deadly heat waves, floods, fires and hurricanes — are the consequences of a warming planet, scientists say.
Volunteers take care of children at a children’s play space opened for survivors of the earthquake in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 31, 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 7, 2025
Professor highlights crucial importance of volunteer aid after major quakes
Although volunteers often face criticism on social media, an expert in disaster management argues that volunteers are essential from the very moment a disaster strikes.
A portion of data showing changes in terrain due to the Noto Peninsula earthquake. The blue areas indicate landslides, while the red areas show accumulated debris.
JAPAN
Jan 6, 2025
Japan government promotes laser forest terrain surveys
Data obtained by terrain surveys can be used for disaster responses by analyzing terrain changes after earthquakes or heavy rain.
Kenichi Tatsumi, 74, chairman of an association for people with visual impairment in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, speaks during an interview in November.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 2, 2025
App helping visually impaired in disasters gains traction one year on
The service, which uses the app to read out the names of evacuation centers and other necessary information, was launched in April this year.
The first sunrise of the year is seen on Wednesday, the one-year anniversary of the massive Noto Peninsula earthquake, in Mitsukushima, a scenic spot in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, where part of the mountain face collapsed.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 1, 2025
Japan marks anniversary of massive Noto Peninsula earthquake
Most of the people affected by the disaster have returned to their homes or moved into temporary housing, and are working to rebuild their lives.
Photos taken from the same place but at different times in the Noto Peninsula towns of Wajima (left) and Suzu illustrate the progress made following the devastating earthquake that hit these areas of Ishikawa Prefecture on Jan. 1, 2024.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 1, 2025
A year after a deadly earthquake, Noto Peninsula still faces long road to recovery
Reconstruction remains a prolonged and complex ordeal for cities in the worst-hit areas, with recovery further hampered by torrential rains in September.
A Starlink antenna placed at a public facility in disaster-hit Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Dec. 10
JAPAN
Dec 31, 2024
Ishikawa municipalities weigh Starlink service one year after earthquake
Municipal officials think that Starlink is effective in securing communication methods in the early days of a disaster.
Evacuated people rest at a green house converted into an evacuation center in the aftermath of an earthquake in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 2. Japan is preparing to create a disaster management agency, with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba particularly keen to improve the conditions of emergency shelters for disaster evacuees.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 30, 2024
Japan preparing to create disaster management agency
Disaster-related deaths exceeded 220 in the 2016 quake disaster in Kumamoto Prefecture and topped 240 in the Noto Peninsula temblor.
International students and others participate in a disaster preparedness drill in Osaka City, where disaster information was conveyed in foreign languages.
JAPAN
Dec 26, 2024
Noto quake inspires more focus on getting disaster info to non-Japanese
The earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula on Jan. 1 highlighted the need to help foreign nationals who do not speak Japanese be more informed.
Workers retrieves tsunami buoy Thai 23461 in the Andaman Sea on Nov. 28.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Dec 25, 2024
The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand
They form part of a warning system intended to ensure no disaster is as deadly as a huge December 2004 tsunami caused by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean.
A strawberry sales area at the Motegi roadside rest station in the town of Motegi, Tochigi Prefecture. As part of measures to address the shortage of successors, the roadside rest station is collaborating with farmers and others to sell locally grown agricultural products.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2024
Support planned for roadside rest stations as regional development hubs
The facilities, which started out mainly as rest places for drivers, have taken on wide-ranging roles, from tourism and agriculture to disaster prevention.
A Meteorological Agency official speaks during a news conference held in Tokyo in August to announce the lifting of the government's emergency alert system for a megaquake that may occur in the Nankai Trough.
JAPAN
Dec 20, 2024
Japan improves public relations for Nankai Trough megaquake alert
The first such alert, issued in August, caused confusion and unrest as the system was not widely recognized.
New unmanned water-cannon robots are set to be deployed to emergency fire assistance teams nationwide.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2024
Emergency teams to be equipped with unmanned water-cannon robots
The robots, remotely operated, can navigate fire sites even during earthquakes or tsunami warnings.
Chinese buyer of Okinawa island to make visit in summer
Yanaha Island in Okinawa Prefecture as seen from a ferry.
More bird flu cases found in Japan; 1.44 million birds to be culled
Officials with the agriculture ministry hold a news conference in Nagoya on Friday following an outbreak of avian influenza in Tokoname, Aichi Prefecture, earlier this month.
Fuji TV loses more advertisers amid inquiry into host’s behavior
Fuji TV is losing more advertisers following allegations about inappropriate behavior by a celebrity host and questions about its handling of the case.
As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
Top sumo pros to enter the ring in Paris in June 2026
Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hakkaku (right) alongside David Rothschild, the promoter of an upcoming tournament in Paris, on Sunday in Tokyo
As Trump returns, will Japan be able to weather the storm?
Then-U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo in May 2019.
Amid rising world hunger, a Japan-inspired group in Kenya is making a big impact
Wawira Njiru, the founder of Food4Education, serves food during the opening of a new kitchen in Mombasa County, Kenya, in 2022. The organization started in 2012 by feeding 25 children out of a single kitchen. Now it feeds nearly half a million every day.
From Tokyo to Manhattan, Takuma Watanabe stirs up a stiff drink
It's taken Takuma Watanabe little time to establish himself as one of New York's hottest bartenders.
For tourists in search of seasonal sights, Yamagata makes its case
For some time away from Tokyo's suffocating urban sameness, Yamagata Prefecture is home to a soothing array of natural abundance.
A slow dive into ‘a moment and an eternity’ with Ryuichi Sakamoto
From the mid-2000s onward, Ryuichi Sakamoto created a number of installation works, often in collaboration with Shiro Takatani, of multimedia art collective Dumb Type.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Atsuyoshi Koike, the president and CEO of Rapidus, says there is a “sense of urgency” when it comes to Japan’s efforts in manufacturing semiconductors. “We have to make sure we are successful,” he says.
Atsuyoshi Koike’s big game: Fourth down and 2 nanometers to go
By Kazuaki Nagata and Richard Meyer

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