[11th March 2011] 8.9 magnitude quake hit northeast Japan
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Cars congested by unlit
signals. From the forth
floor I shouted, Run and climb. The tsunami
surged every five minutes. Waves
crashed oil tankers. The flaming
houses flowed with the burning
sea. I am cold. Help me, a woman
pleaded. Her hair absorbed
the oil and ignited. Then her scorched
head sank......God, please take her to heaven,
I prayed and
prayed on my shaking legs. In the evening,
I burned my necktie to keep warm.
My eyes were wide
open in the blackout. I wanted
the sun to rise. I wanted my mother’s warm
hands. I finally dozed off…
There was an annihilated
city in front of me. I stood
with only my cellular phone in my pocket.- Anonymous Japanese poem
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Magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits off Japan coast
TOKYO - JAPAN was rattled by a strong aftershock and tsunami warning on Thursday night nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the north-eastern coast.
The Japan meteorological agency issued a tsunami warning for a wave of up to two metres. The warning was issued for a coastal area already torn apart by last month's tsunami, which is believed to have killed some 25,000 people and has sparked an ongoing crisis at a nuclear power plant.
Officials say Thursday's aftershock was a 7.4-magnitude and hit 40km under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture. The quake that preceded last month's tsunami was a 9.0-magnitude. Buildings as far away as Tokyo shook for about a minute.
In Ichinoseki, inland from Japan's eastern coast, buildings shook violently, knocking items from shelves and toppling furniture, but there was no heavy damage to the buildings themselves. Immediately after the quake, all power was cut. The city went dark, but cars drove around normally and people assembled in the streets despite the late hour.
US Geological Survey gave the preliminary magnitude as 7.4 and it struck off the eastern coast 100km from Sendai and 140km from Fukushima. It was about 345km from Tokyo. The depth was 40km. Shallower quakes tend to be more destructive.
Workers battling to control the stricken nuclear plant on were ordered to evacuate, operator Tepco said. -- AP, AFP
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Two killed, 100 hurt in Japan aftershock
TOKYO - A POWERFUL aftershock that rocked an area of Japan still reeling from last month's earthquake and tsunami disaster killed two people and injured around 100, emergency services said on Friday.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said a 63-year-old woman in Yamagata prefecture died after her respirator failed when the power was knocked out by the 7.1 magnitude tremor.
'Her respiratory equipment was found turned off. We believe the machine was turned off due to the outage,' a spokesman for the agency said. The agency said one person also died in Miyagi prefecture - the area worst hit by the 9.0 magnitude quake of March 11 and the tsunami it spawned.
A tsunami alert issued earlier was cancelled after no deadly wave materialised. Workers battling to control the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on the north-east coast were temporarily ordered to evacuate, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) said.
The evacuation order came less than 24 hours after they began pumping nitrogen, an inert gas, into reactor No. 1, where engineers were concerned a build-up of hydrogen might react with oxygen to cause an explosion. Work at the plant was remotely controlled and was continuing, the company said. A Tepco spokesman told a press conference there was 'no information immediately indicating any abnormality at Fukushima Daiichi plant'.
A nuclear safety agency official told reporters: 'There are no abnormal readings at the Fukushima Daiichi's monitoring posts", adding: 'We have not seen any problem... with regard to the injection of nitrogen.'
The official said some external power sources used to cool reactor cores had been lost at plants in Onagawa in Miyagi prefecture and at Rokkasho and Higashidori in Aomori prefecture, but at least one emergency source remained operational at each. -- AFP
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Three killed, 100 hurt in Japan aftershock
TOKYO - A POWERFUL aftershock that rocked an area of Japan still reeling from last month's earthquake and tsunami disaster killed three people and injured around 100, emergency services said on Friday.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said a 63-year-old woman in Yamagata prefecture died after her respirator failed when the power was knocked out by the 7.1 magnitude tremor.
'Her respiratory equipment was found turned off. We believe the machine was turned off due to the (power) outage,' a spokesman for the agency said.
Reports said two men aged 79 and 85 were killed in Myagi prefecture - the area worst hit by the 9.0 magnitude quake of March 11 and the tsunami it spawned.
Broadcaster NHK said the 79-year-old was found unconscious after the quake and taken to hospital, where he was confirmed dead, while Jiji Press said an 85-year-old man also died in the quake, but gave no further details.
The disaster management agency said at least 93 people were confirmed injured as of 9.30am (0030 GMT, 8.30am Singapore time) while Jiji Press said about 130 were injured. Power remains off for about 3.6 million households in the north-eastern region, Jiji said. -- AFP
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The arrival of spring is late
But you shall run, as you were,
and cherish these cherry blossoms
in the bay that was once green
you close up that sad feelings
In these hard times;
I beckon your soul to be liberated:
“Please not be so patient this time.
Please allow distant blessings balm your wound. “
share the sorrows and grievances, though,
patience, hardships and silence are
virtues of resilience and rehabilitation
of an orphaned nation
I beckon your soul to be liberated
From the dew at the tip of its wilting end
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Japan's 7.1-quake causes radioactive water spill
TOKYO - A powerful earthquake in northeast Japan rocked a nuclear plant, causing a small amount of radioactive water to spill, officials said Friday, but the operator said there was no immediate danger.
The 7.1-magnitude quake that hit late Thursday caused liquid to overflow from spent fuel pools in all three reactor buildings at the Onagawa plant, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said.
Most seriously affected was reactor number two, where 3.8 litres from the spent fuel pool ended up on the floor of the operation room.
But operator Tohoku-Electric Power Co. said no radioactive liquid had leaked out of the plant.
"It's not like the Fukushima nuclear plant, where water kept running out," said a spokesman.
"We're currently investigating where the water came from. The radiation levels in the wet areas are far below the level that would require us to report to authorities."
The Onagawa plant lies more than 100 kilometres from the Fukushima Daiichi facility, where the March 11 quake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems causing a series of explosions.
Radioactive water was found to be seeping from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean after the disaster, although plant officials say that leak has now been fixed.
Tohoku-Electric Power said all three reactors at the Onagawa plant were placed in a state of cold shut-down after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11 and were no longer operating when the latest quake struck.
"The water in the spent fuel pools spilled over the edges," the spokesman added. "It's not like water is continuously dripping from a crack or anything."
Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd, which operates the nuclear reprocessing facilities in Rokkasho, Aomori prefecture, said its external power supply was cut off by Thursday's quake, but later returned.
At the Higashidori nuclear plant, the external power source was also partially cut off and the cooling system for the spent fuel rod pool temporarily halted, the safety agency said, adding the power was now back up.
- AFP/ir -
Four dead as new tremor hits Japan disaster zone
SENDAI, Japan: A powerful aftershock rocked Japan's tsunami disaster zone, killing at least four and triggering new concerns over nuclear power plants in a region still grappling with an atomic emergency.
Electricity was cut across a huge area of northern Japan, forcing cooling systems at three nuclear plants to switch to emergency power and plunging more than 3.3 million households into darkness late Thursday night.
At least one backup supply remained online at all three plants, but the aftershock highlighted the potential risks of nuclear generation in an earthquake zone amid a battle to stabilise reactors at tsunami-hit Fukushima.
Officials and reports said four people had been killed by the 7.1 magnitude tremor, which struck off the coast near Sendai -- one of the most powerful to hit Japan since the country's worst post-war disaster four weeks ago.
Thursday's quake swayed buildings in the capital Tokyo, more than 300 kilometres away from the epicentre, and generated unease even well away from the coast.
In the town of Kitakami, northwest of the epicentre, an AFP reporter witnessed queues forming at convenience stores as people tried to stock up anew on food, water and batteries.
"It was so scary," said Kazuyuki Shiroiwa, who had been to four shops in central Kitakami in a vain effort to find batteries.
"The midnight quake reminded me of the fear I felt a month ago," he said. "I'm fed up with earthquakes. No more quakes, please."
Workers battling to control the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on the northeast coast were ordered to evacuate temporarily but have since returned, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said.
The evacuation order came less than 24 hours after the workers began pumping nitrogen, an inert gas, into reactor No. 1, where engineers were concerned a build-up of hydrogen might react with oxygen to cause an explosion.
Work at the plant was remotely controlled and had continued uninterrupted, the company said.
The loss of external power sources at Fukushima in the March 11 tsunami left reactor cores heating up uncontrollably, resulting in the world's worst nuclear emergency since Chernobyl 25 years ago.
The crippled plant has leaked radiation which has made its way into tap water and farm produce, sparking food export bans covering a large area.
Some highly radioactive water has leaked into the Pacific Ocean and this week TEPCO began dumping 11,500 tonnes of low-level radioactive water from the plant into the sea to free up urgently needed storage space.
The move has angered the Japanese fishing industry and raised concerns in neighbouring countries including China, which on Friday urged Tokyo to ensure the marine environment was protected.
The nuclear agency said Thursday's quake had knocked out some external power sources used for cooling at plants in Onagawa in Miyagi prefecture and at Rokkasho and Higashidori in Aomori prefecture.
But at least one emergency power source remained operational at each, and there was no indication that the loss of regular power was causing a problem.
Operator Tohoku Electric Power said some water overflowed from pools housing spent fuel at the Onagawa plant and spilled onto the floor, but that radiation levels remained normal.
The Onagawa plant was already in cold shut-down, while the Higashidori plant's only reactor was under maintenance and the Rokkasho plant is a reprocessing facility.
A spokesman for the plant's operator, Tohoku-Electric Power Co, said radiation levels were still "far below the level that would require us to report to authorities".
Hundreds of aftershocks have rocked Japan since the 9.0 magnitude quake last month and the resulting tsunami, which killed more than 12,600 people and left around 15,000 unaccounted for.
March's record quake has exacted a heavy cost on the world's number three economy, and rippled across industries worldwide as parts supplied from Japan run short.
But auto giant Toyota Friday announced it would be resuming operations at all of its Japanese assembly plants on April 18.
Japan said it would ease shipping restrictions on milk and some vegetables from near the Fukushima plant, while New Delhi overturned a blanket ban on importing Japanese produce.
Several countries, including China, Taiwan, Singapore and the United States, have banned shipments of produce from certain Japanese prefectures near the plant, but India had been the first to announce a complete ban.
-AFP/ac -
Moderate quake hits south-west Japan
TOKYO - A MODERATE earthquake hit off south-west Japan late on Saturday but there no immediate reports of casualties or damage, seismologists said.
The tremor hit off southwestern Tanegashima island 1,000km south-west of Tokyo at 9.58 pm (8.58pm Singapore time).
The US Geological Survey measured the tremor at 6.1 magnitude with a depth of 21km while the Japan Meteorological Agency put it at 5.7 and a shallower 10km.
A massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake and following tsunami devastated northeast Japan on March 11, with nearly 28,000 people dead or missing.
A number of strong aftershocks have shaken the country. A magnitude 7.1 tremor hit the region late on Thursday. -- AFP
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The tidal waves have broken these heart walls
While on their journey to the sea.
Great shivers
of my heart flow are but
Living a life like an eternal game.
Each ripple is a voice from above,Saying I’m there watching over in love,
Gentle and true to the waves as it spreads.
My ripple will one day speak for itself,The waves will break these heart walls.
For you have loved with deepest innocence,
To give you my hope, my highest love.
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More than half Japan tsunami victims elderly
TOKYO - MORE than half of those killed by Japan's massive quake-tsunami were elderly, a report said on Sunday.
Of the nearly 8,000 dead whose ages are known, around 4,400 were aged 65 or older, the Asahi Shimbun said, citing police figures.
Fishing villages and small communities along the country's north-east coast were badly hit by the March 11 tsunami that roared ashore after a 9.0 magnitude undersea quake struck in the middle of the afternoon.
Those aged 65 or over make up around a quarter of the population of fast-greying Japan, where a declining birthrate is adding to demographic woes.
The figure is slightly higher in rural communities whose young people, citing work opportunities and lifestyle choices, have for many years been decamping to the cities.
The paper said the elderly in tsunami-hit areas could have been disproportionately affected because of their lack of mobility. -- AFP
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you don’t want to see the city through
yourself anymore you imagined dead bodies
ravaged with waves
the city is a city of constant
sidewalks’ destruction and repairs
if you could lay hands on the interior
you would raise with heart walls
the city is a city of streets named
Hopes you imagined
somewhere the waters may
meet the unseen shore
at the line where the dead souls touch
you would like to dream
in which you are separated from yourself
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Japan rattled by aftershock on quake anniversary
SENDAI - A MAGNITUDE-7.1 aftershock has rattled Japan on the one-month anniversary of a massive earthquake that spawned a deadly tsunami.
A warning was issued for a one-metre tsunami, the same as after another 7.1 aftershock that shook the north-east coast last week. There was no tsunami after that quake. The tsunami alert was lifted soon after.
People at a large electronics store in central Sendai screamed and ran outside, though the shaking made it hard to move around. Mothers grabbed their children, and windows shook. After a minute or two, people returned to the store.
Workers battling to contain a crisis at a stricken nuclear plant in Japan were ordered to evacuate on Monday after a powerful 7.1 magnitude aftershock, operator Tepco said.
'The company ordered workers to withdraw and stay in a quake-proof building,' a spokesman for the operator said. 'We don't know many workers were involved.'
The power supply to three stricken reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were cut by the quake, but was quickly, the operator said. -- AP, AFP
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Then the tears folded over her
Lover’s short predicament
While long leaves the boughs embrace
Her dissolving joys of this ruined summer palace
The blue sky clouded once upon her bluish gaze
While mourners found
They were afoot in the air although
Life is sinking through
The long notes the trees began their songs
While branches tense like dancers
Rooted down
Under and between the buried stones
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Japan police find 10 bodies in nuclear zone
TOKYO - JAPANESE police on Thursday found the bodies of 10 tsunami victims in the first search of a 10km zone around an atomic plant, as emergency crews battled to contain a nuclear crisis.
Hundreds of police wearing white protective suits and face masks scoured rubble-strewn neighbourhoods near the plant for victims of the giant wave that smashed into Japan's north-east coast more than a month ago.
Some of the remains were found inside cars and others were 'buried in debris, so that the sight of just a foot or other body part would lead to the discovery of a whole body,' a Fukushima police spokesman told AFP.
The 300-strong force was to continue their search on Friday in the no-man's land - pushing closer towards the facility after they started a wider search on April 3 that covered the outer areas of the 20km exclusion zone.
Before the search began, police said it was difficult to estimate how many bodies were in the 10km danger zone around the plant, although the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper put the figure at around 1,000 tsunami victims.
At the plant itself, emergency crews continued efforts to stop radioactive leaks into the Pacific, erecting a seabed silt fence to slow the spread of contaminants to sea and pumping highly toxic runoff water into tanks. -- AFP
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Japan nuclear plant operator promises compensation
TOKYO : The embattled operator of Japan's crippled nuclear power plant on Friday promised an initial one million yen (US$12,000) in compensation to each family living close to the facility.
"We have decided to offer necessary payment as provisional compensation so that we can provide as much support as possible," Masataka Shimizu, president of Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), told a news conference.
Tens of thousands of people living in a 20-kilometre (13-mile) zone around the plant were ordered to leave due to radiation fears, and people within 30km were first told to stay indoors and later encouraged to also evacuate.
"We will pay the provisional payment to families who lived in areas where people were ordered to evacuate or stay inside their houses," Shimizu said.
Japan's economy suffered a big blow in the triple earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, but the country should have no problem financing reconstruction, the central bank chief said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa conceded problems in the economic supply chain, power generation, tourism and other important sectors.
But he said the financial system could cope.
"As long as Japan continues to work tirelessly towards rebuilding it is unlikely that financing problems will arise," he said.
Shirakawa said the three-pronged disaster struck "at a time when Japan's economy was gradually returning" to strength. He said the disruption mean "it is inevitable" that production and supply will suffer.
And given the global nature of economy, closely linked countries such as China and the United States could also be affected. "The impact on supply chain could spread internationally," he said.
However, Shirakawa insisted that Japan has the resources to bounce back.
"Japanese society has shown resilience. The work of rebuilding has started to get underway gradually but steadily," he said.
"The first challenge is ensuring the necessary financing for rebuilding. In this regard, Japan has had an excess of saving over investment for a protracted period. From a macro-economic perspective, this financing will not be difficult," he said.
"Japan's capacity for foreign currency funding is extremely strong, given that the country is the biggest creditor nation in the world."
"Private financial institutions are fully able to meet an increase in financing demand for rebuilding. Meanwhile, Japanese government bonds have been issued quite smoothly," he said.
"Most private economists believe that Japan's GDP growth rate will turn positive again from the third quarter of 2011."
Power cuts are now the greatest threat to Japan's economic recovery, the Asian Development Bank's top economist said Thursday, as the pain from the disaster showed few signs of relenting.
After initial concerns that the disaster would wreck Japanese and global manufacturing supply chains, Changyong Rhee said the main fear had become a prolonged power cuts and brownouts.
Power cuts "can hurt not just the affected area, but the whole of Japan," Rhee said, pointing to disruptions that could hobble the economy for months to come.
"Initially, we thought that power supply would be normalized by the end of April; it looks like it is going to be a bit longer than that."
Power shortages have plagued the country since the quake, which caused 11 of Japan's 55 nuclear reactors to be at least temporarily closed.
The government has already imposed electricity-saving targets to reduce consumption by up to 25 percent, even as it battles to contain leaks at the ailing Fukushima plant.
More than a month after a devastating 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit the country, Rhee and other economists are still trying to understand the long-term impact on the world's third largest economy and its neighbours.
The biggest question mark might now be the fate of those 11 nuclear power plants, which account for around six percent of the country's electricity production.
- AFP/ir -
This summer you are taken for a sleep -
close your eyes nowa feel of its original strangeness
with time easily turning on the gushpassion when you are drifted away by merciless waves
my meditative loneliness foreverMy usual life becomes but a compromise
while time lets me learn habitually
this hail of sadness -
let this love returns its warmth
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Japan travel is safe, says UN tourism body
MADRID - THERE is no reason to avoid travel to and from Japan as radiation levels at the country's airports and ports are 'well within safe limits', the UN World Tourism Organisation said on Friday.
Emergency crews have struggled to prevent a catastrophic meltdown at the Fukushima plant in north-eastern Japan since a massive earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, leading many foreign governments to urge their citizens to stay away from the country.
Just 352,800 foreigners arrived in Japan in March, 50.3 percent fewer than the same month in 2010 and the largest decline ever recorded, according to the Japan National Tourism Board.
But the Madrid-based UN World Tourism Organisation said the 'current situation poses no risk to travel to and from Japan'. 'Radiation monitoring around airports and seaports in Japan continues to confirm that levels remain well within safe limits from a health perspective,' it said in a statement.
'In addition, monitoring of passengers, crew and cargo from Japan carried out to date in other countries, in accordance with their national policy, does not suggest any health or safety risk.'
A total 8.6 million people travelled to Japan last year, marking a healthy rebound from the 6.8 million in 2009 when the swine flu pandemic and global economic downturn curbed international travel. The March 11 disaster was the worst to hit Japan since World War II, and is now known to have killed 13,456 people, with another 14,851 still missing. -- AFP
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Strong quake shakes buildings in Tokyo
A strong earthquake of magnitude 5.8 hit central Japan on Saturday morning, according to the US Geological Survey.
The quake, which shook buildings in Tokyo, struck at 11:19 am (0219 GMT), 83 kilometres (52 miles) north of the capital and at a depth of 20 kilometres, the USGS said.
Operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said the tremor did not disrupt the emergency crews who are working around the clock to cool crippled reactors at a nuclear plant hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami last month.
That earthquake -- the biggest ever recorded in Japan -- struck on March 11, triggering a huge tsunami and leaving 13,591 people dead, with another 14,497 still unaccounted for.
Tens of thousands of people lost their homes, while many others were forced to evacuate after a series of explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant sent radiation spewing into the air.
The radiation leaks have resulted in bans on produce from the affected area and hurt the fishing and farming industries because of public fears over radioactivity in food.
On Friday, Japan's government ordered TEPCO to offer payouts to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the ongoing crisis.
The total cost from collapsed or damaged houses, factories and infrastructure such as roads and bridges is estimated to reach 16-25 trillion yen over the next three fiscal years, according to the Cabinet Office.
There were no immediate reports of any damage or casualties from Saturday's quake, which the Japan Meteorological Agency said had a magnitude of 5.9 and struck at a depth of 70 kilometres underground.
-- AFP
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Quake shakes buildings in Tokyo
TOKYO : An earthquake of magnitude 6.0 hit eastern Japan late Thursday, rattling buildings in Tokyo but appearing to cause no damage and there was no tsunami warning.
The tremor struck at a depth of 70 kilometres (43 miles), off Chiba prefecture, at 10:37 pm (1337 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
The US Geological Survey measured the jolt at 6.1.
A massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11, leaving more than 27,000 people dead or missing as well as crippling nuclear power reactors.
- AFP