Japan Today - National

An ANA plane had to abort its landing at Sendai airport on Sunday morning after its fuselage scraped the runway. There were no injuries among the 166 passengers and crew, according to transport ministry officials.. Flight 731 from Osaka landed shortly after 9 a.m., and its fuselage hit the runway,…

World leaders will gather in South Korea in March for a summit that will seek to restore confidence in the nuclear industry after the Fukushima disaster in Japan. The Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul will be the second since U.S. President Barack Obama inaugurated the forum in Washington in 2010…

Heavy snow continued to take its toll on Saturday with at least three more snow-related deaths reported in northern Japan. So far, 63 deaths due to snow-related accidents have been reported in Japan this winter, the land ministry said Saturday. In Tokamachi, Niigata Prefecture, a woman found her 62-year-old husband…

An 84-year-old woman was discovered by her neighbors after being buried in snow outside her house for over four hours in Mogami, Yamagata Prefecture, police said Saturday. The woman, who has been named as Kikuto Saito, told police she left her house at around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday to check…

A vacant lot beside a canal near an elementary school in Yokohama's Seya Ward, has been designated a no-entry area following the detection of high levels of radiative cesium. According to Yokohama authorities, topsoil to a depth of 1 cm was found to be emitting 6.85 microsieverts per hour, almost…

Legoland Discovery Center Tokyo, a new 4,000-square-meter Lego-themed attraction opening in June at the Decks Tokyo Beach mall in Odaiba, is holding a contest to select a master builder. Merlin Entertainments, which operates the Lego theme parks, will accept applications through Feb 29 on its Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/LEGOLANDiscoveryCenterTokyo) and Twitter…

Leaks of radioactive water have become more frequent at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant less than two months after it was declared basically stable. The problem underlines the continuing challenges facing Tokyo Electric Power Co as it attempts to keep the nuclear plant under control. A massive earthquake…

Japanese competitive-eating champ Takeru Kobayashi ate a record 337 chicken wings in 30 minutes before a crowd of nearly 20,000 at Wing Bowl XX in the U.S. He demolished the record of 255 set last year by Jonathan "Super" Squibb. The Friday morning contest in Philadelphia drew thousands to watch…

A set of serving plates shaped like "uchiwa" (Japanese fans), dubbed the "Four Seasons," was awarded the Grand Prize in the Charming Japanese Souvenir Contest 2012, hosted by the Japan Tourism Agency. The judges comprised foreign nationals from 15 countries and regions as well as local experts on tourism, commerce…

A company in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, has lost 500 grams of potassium cyanide, police said. The industrial plating company, Tanaka Plating Co, reported the loss to police on Thursday, Fuji TV reported. According to police, the potassium cyanide was being stored in a plastic container. A company spokesperson told police…

Authorities are warning parents to take extra care with children eating soybeans during Friday's Setsubun festival. Setsubun marks the day before the beginning of spring in Japan. The festival involves a ritual called "mamemaki," traditionally intended to drive away the evil and disease of the former year. The ritual involves…

Two black bears startled golfers on Thursday when they appeared at a golf driving range in Iruma, Saitama Prefecture. Police said there were seven people on the range when the bears appeared at about 4:50 p.m., TV Asahi reported. Nobody was injured and the bears, believed to be a mother…

Ukrainian nuclear experts say Japanese evacuated from around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant should be able to return to their homes -- unlike the Chernobyl site, which remains inside a wide no-go zone a quarter-century after the accident there. The public may eventually be able to visit the Fukushima Daiichi…

The Japan Dairy Association said Thursday that its member companies will test their dairy products for radiation at 180 different manufacturing locations in 17 prefectures. The association, which has 19 members, says it is responding to requests from area schools to confirm that the products are safe for consumption, Jiji…

Heavy snow that has blanketed northern Japan for weeks, triggering avalanches and affecting transport networks, has left at least 55 people dead, officials said Thursday. In one of the country's coldest winters in recent years, 43 people have died as they removed snow from roofs or roads, while seven more…

Over 200 cars traveling on a national highway in Aomori were forced to a standstill by a snowstorm on Wednesday night, police said Thursday. According to police, the trouble took place on the Shimokita Peninsula, a remote, axe-shaped peninsula located at the northernmost tip of Honshu, where large trucks and…

Emperor Akihito is to undergo another heart exam next week, a palace official said Wednesday, amid increasing worries about the monarch's health. The angiogram of his coronary arteries, scheduled for Feb 11, comes after Akihito's electrocardiogram showed a restricted blood flow to his heart. The 78-year-old emperor went through the…

Some 8.5 tons of radioactive water leaked from a reactor at Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant but it had not flowed outside the reactor building, Kyodo News said Wednesday, quoting the plant's operator. Tokyo Electric Power Co said the leak occurred in the No. 4 reactor after a…

A self-governing body in Tokyo which was tasked with carrying out a test incineration of radioactive debris from Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, announced Wednesday that radiation emitted by the incineration falls below the government's legal limit. As a result, full-scale incineration of debris from the Tohoku region is scheduled to begin…

Third-year university student Saki Fujii flips through a meticulously kept diary of her six-month job hunt and eyes the busy week of interviews ahead -- another step on the treadmill for one of Japan's would-be workers. The 22-year-old knows her best hope of finding a full-time position is by doing…