TRAVEL

The nation's three low-cost carriers, coming off a successful Golden Week holiday period, are hoping to increase demand by opening up new routes. (Yomiuri)

A 62-year-old woman who served as a citizen judge in a murder case filed suit against the government on Tuesday seeking 2 million yen in damages, arguing her involvement in the trial caused her to suffer acute stress disorder. (Global Post)

The Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra made its first foreign tour, in Russia through Sunday, since the massive earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan, including its home city of Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture, in March 2011. (Jiji Press)

On December 25 of last year, a woman from Miyagi Prefecture filed a suit in Sendai District Court against a Tokyo investigative firm which she claims offers a couple-busting service that is immoral (Tokyo Reporter)

Sendai in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture experienced one of the strongest tremors in March 2011. Factories and shops in the area were badly damaged. (Channel NewsAsia)

The trial began Monday of a man charged with the murder of a 23-year-old nurse in an apartment in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, in Golden Week last year. (Japan Today)

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the northeast coast of Japan on Saturday, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported. (hindustantimes.com)

A strong quake centred off northeastern Japan shook buildings as far away as Tokyo on Friday and triggered a one-metre tsunami in an area devastated by last year's Fukushima disaster, but there were no reports of deaths or serious damage. (Reuters)

A construction worker and a traffic guard were killed and another construction worker was severely injured early Sunday when they were struck by a minivehicle driven by a drunk driver at a road repair site on a national road in Aoba Ward, Sendai, police said. (Yomiuri)

A military squad has safely removed a 250-kilogram (550 pound) World War II bomb found two weeks ago near the runway of a major airport in northern Japan. (huffingtonpost.com)

A huge World War II bomb uncovered near a busy runway at Sendai airport in Miyagi Prefecture was underneath a shield of concrete and sandbags on Wednesday as flights resumed, a government official said. (Japan Today)

World leaders and disaster experts called for more international aid to improve disaster preparedness in developing countries as they wrapped up their meeting in the northeastern Japan city of Sendai on Wednesday. (Mainichi)

SENDAI - The experiences of survivors of the massive quake and tsunami that smashed into Japan last year were being mined Tuesday at an international meeting on disaster management. (AFP)

Politicians and aid officials will gather in Japan's quake- and tsunami-hit northeast Tuesday to discuss what lessons can be learned from disasters. Pre-emptive measures to reduce damage -- and save lives -- when nature strikes will be top of the agenda at this two-day conference, part of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. (AFP)

Japan's unilateral move of the so-called "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands, which are Chinese territories, two weeks ago has taken its toll on bilateral economic and trade ties, experts said on Tuesday. (Xinhua)

A private high school in Sendai has apologized to a second-year student who suffered cigarette burns and other bullying by his classmates, but was asked to leave school because his scars might make other students feel "anxiety," according to sources. (Yomiuri)

The earthquake that spawned a tsunami and a nuclear crisis in Japan last year also spurred an increase in heart-related ailments and pneumonia, according to a study. (BusinessWeek)

Ever wanted to feel like a movie star? All you need to do is hop on a plane and come to Japan! Easy, right? Today my delegation and I found ourselves in a local school in Sendai. We were greeted by the students with an overwhelming procession -- cheering, clapping, whooping, hollering and everything in between. (huffingtonpost.com)

Colorful streamers were hung from hundreds of bamboo poles in shopping arcades near Sendai Station in Miyagi Prefecture on Monday morning to mark the opening of the Sendai Tanabata Festival. (Japan Today)

The 61-year-old driver of a tour bus that crashed on the Tohoku Expressway early Thursday morning, suffered a cerebral infarction two months ago, it has been learned. (Japan Today)

Octopuses caught off northern Fukushima Prefecture were auctioned Monday at the Sendai City Central Wholesale Market, marking the first time since the nuclear disaster erupted in March 2011 that seafood from the area has been marketed outside it. (Japan Times)

A hotel worker from disaster-hit Sendai ran with the Olympic torch Monday in Morley, a town near Leeds, England, as an official torchbearer ahead of the London Olympics. (Japan Times)

A Sendai disaster victim who lost his 2-year-old daughter in the March 2011 tsunami has been selected as an Olympic torchbearer for the London Games. (Japan Times)

The transit of Venus across the sun was observed over a wide area of Japan on Wednesday morning. The planet started its transit at around 7:10 a.m. Japan time from the upper left side of the sun and slowly moved to the right. It will take about six and half hours for Venus to move across the sun. (Mainichi)

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture on Saturday to show their support for the recovery effort in the tsunami-hit region. (Japan Today)