The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says the groundwater level briefly plummeted near a building that houses one of the crippled reactors. (NHK)
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake has struck north of Tokyo. The tremor occurred at 2:02 AM on Wednesday. The epicenter was in northern Ibaraki Prefecture at a depth of 10 kilometers. (NHK)
A traditional summer festival featuring samurai on horseback has begun in the Soma region of Fukushima Prefecture. (NHK)
The Japanese government on Friday unveiled a plan to build underground repositories for the storage of highly radioactive waste from the disaster-struck Fukushima and other nuclear power plants in the country. (business-standard.com)
In the past several weeks alone, elderly Japanese drivers have been wreaking havoc across the country: breaking through median barriers into oncoming traffic, ploughing over pedestrians crossing the road, and smashing into other cars. In all these cases, somebody was killed. (afr.com)
Images captured by an underwater robot on Saturday showed massive deposits believed to be melted nuclear fuel covering the floor of a damaged reactor at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. (washingtonpost.com)
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant says the metal scaffolding right below the damaged No.3 reactor appears to have gone missing after the 2011 disaster. (NHK)
Tepco says 'decision has already been made' to release radioactive, low-toxic tritium into sea; fish
Radioactive tritium, said to pose little risk to human health, will be released from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power complex into the sea, according to a top official of the plant operator. (Japan Times)
Preparations for shipping MOX, or mixed oxide, fuel to be used in a recently restarted nuclear reactor in Fukui Prefecture, central Japan, is underway in northwestern France. (NHK)
More than half of freshly minted presidents at major Japanese enterprises in the first six months of this year were in their 50s, according to a Nikkei Inc. survey. (Nikkei)
Japan's transport ministry is set to help regional airports attract more international flights in an effort to boost the number of foreign tourists to the country. (NHK)
Three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the company that operates the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, pleaded not guilty Friday as they stood trial for their alleged failure to prevent the nuclear meltdown disaster triggered by the 2011 tsunami. (Japan Today)
An underground ice wall being built to keep groundwater from entering the crippled nuclear reactor buildings in Fukushima is expected to be completed soon. (NHK)
A US appeals court has ruled that hundreds of American navy personnel can pursue a compensation suit against the government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Co. for illnesses allegedly caused by exposure to radioactivity in the aftermath of the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant. (telegraph.co.uk)
Two men working at a waste disposal plant in Tamura City, Fukushima Prefecture, face theft charges for keeping approximately 10 million yen which they and a third worker found mixed in with collected garbage. (Japan Today)
Toshiba Corp. unveiled on Thursday a submersible robot to take live video of reactor 3 at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant to confirm whether fuel debris is sitting at the bottom of a pool of radioactive water inside. (Japan Times)
The Saga District Court on Tuesday rejected a request from local residents for an injunction to block the planned restart of the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture. (the-japan-news.com)
A blobfish, a deep-sea blob sculpin fish dubbed the world's ugliest animal, has been put on display at an aquarium in Fukushima Prefecture. (Japan Times)