News On Japan

Takahama No. 2 nuclear reactor in Japan restarted after 12-year halt

Sep 16 (Kyodo) - Kansai Electric Power Co. on Friday rebooted its nearly 50-year-old No. 2 reactor at its Takahama nuclear plant in central Japan for the first time since 2011, becoming the 12th unit to be restarted in the country since the Fukushima accident.

The reboot in Fukui Prefecture means the Osaka-based utility has resumed operating all of its seven reactors after stricter safety standards were introduced following a nuclear meltdown crisis that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

The Takahama No. 2 unit began commercial operations in 1975 and is the second oldest in Japan following the 48-year-old No. 1 unit at the same plant, which was restarted in July after a 12-year halt. ...continue reading

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The global matcha boom is driving up costs in Japan’s historic tea capital, with Uji City in Kyoto Prefecture set to raise usage fees at its municipal tea rooms by roughly 50% as soaring demand pushes up the price of tencha, the raw material used to produce matcha.

Six junior high school students were taken to hospital after falling ill from eating pizza made during a home economics class in Kitakyushu last month, with officials suspecting the cause to be an excessive amount of salt added to the dough.

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A ceremony was held in Kyiv on February 11th where the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) presented generators to Ukraine as the country grapples with worsening electricity shortages following Russian attacks on energy facilities, with citizens struggling to endure severe winter conditions and international assistance for power infrastructure continuing to grow.

A renewed water outage struck Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture after supplies briefly resumed on February 11th morning, with authorities reinstating water restrictions from 9 p.m. as frozen pipes and low reservoir levels linked to an intense cold wave continued to disrupt supply across the region.

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