News stories by Suvendrini Kakuchi, page 8

My decision to visit Fukushima - the area worst hit by the massive quake, tsunami and nuclear power accident on Mar. 11 - was taken one afternoon last week after a long meeting with scientists.

When the massive Tohoku quake struck on Mar. 11, Yayoko Shinohara, owner of a small grocery store on the main shopping street of the now devastated Namie town, grabbed the day’s earnings and escaped to safety with her husband.

Accidents at four nuclear power reactors hit by the earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima have left thousands of residents in the vicinity facing an uncertain future as they prepare for evacuation orders to protect them from dangerous radiation contamination.

For the past three days Hiroko Oogusa, 62 - following orders from the local authorities - has remained in her tightly shuttered home located 40 kilometres from the badly damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

Desperate efforts by the government to avoid the looming nightmare of a nuclear meltdown in tsunami damaged Fukushima nuclear plants, 240 kilometres north of Tokyo, have brought no relief to the public who face the possibility of another explosion that could spew deadly radiation across the country.

Heightened tension on Saturday after a blast at a nuclear facility in Fukushima, 150 kilometres north of Tokyo, eased off after the government reported that the danger had been overstated.

Japan’s reputation as a world leader in disaster management is facing a crucial test as the country scrambles to deal with the massive destruction caused by a strong earthquake on Friday that has left mounting deaths in the densely populated northeast.

After years of stiff resistance, the Japanese government has announced a temporary halt to its controversial research whaling programme in the Antarctic Ocean, a decision that will finally stir the debate to promote sustainable fishing, say conservationists here.

For years, Toshikazu Takahashi, director of the sixty-year-old St. Francis Children’s Home child care facility, has grappled with the difficult of issue of protecting battered children from their abusive parents.

Defusing the North Korean crisis can be achieved with a bolder military alliance, say Japan, South Korea and the United States. But peace proponents beg to differ, arguing that inclusion and engagement with the Stalinist state and its ally China is the only way to build trust and lay the foundation for stability at long last in East Asia.