Japan Crisis

• Japan's Big Butter Crisis

  Japanese shoppers are up in arms over a serious butter shortage that has forced Tokyo to resort to emergency imports, as some grocers limit sales to one block per customer. Some shop shelves are bare and stores are trumpeting the arrival of new supplies...

• Japan's emperor makes first trip to disaster zone

  Japan's respected emperor visited the country's earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged disaster zone for the first time Thursday as frustration rose over the nation's inability to gain control over a crisis at a nuclear plant crippled by the twin disasters.Even as the month-old emergency dragged on, radiation levels dropped enough for police sealed in whi...

• Japan faces its next chore: Cleaning up

  Where do you even start?Do you start by carting away the Chokai Maru, the 150-foot (45-meter) ship that was lifted over a pier and slammed into a house in this port town? Do you start with the thousands of destroyed cars scattered like discarded toys in the city of Sendai? With the broken windows and the doorless refrigerators and the endless remna...

• Japan: Loss of control frightens Tokyo

  Japan, a country lulled by the reassuring rhythms of order and predictability, has been jolted by earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis into an unsettling new reality: lack of control. In a nation where you can set your watch by a train's arrival and a conductor apologizes for even a one-minute delay, rolling blackouts have forced commuters to lea...

• Japan says 2nd reactor may have ruptured with radioactive release

  Japan's nuclear crisis intensified again on Wednesday, with Japanese authorities announcing that a containment vessel in a second reactor unit at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan may have ruptured and appeared to be releasing radioactive steam. That would be the second vessel to be compromised in two days. The vessel had a...

• Japan crisis spikes demand for radiation pills

  Japan's nuclear crisis is spiking demand in the U.S. and a few other places for a cheap drug that can protect against one type of radiation damage -- even though the risk is only in Japan.Health agencies in California and western Canada warned on Tuesday that there's no reason for people an ocean away to suddenly stock up on potassium iodide. Some ...

• These 50 workers may be Japan's last chance

  A small crew of technicians, braving radiation and fire, became the only people remaining at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday -- and perhaps Japan's last chance of preventing a broader nuclear catastrophe.They crawl through labyrinths of equipment in utter darkness pierced only by their flashlights, listening for periodic expl...

• Fire at reactor adds to challenges as Japan weighs new plans to cool fuel

  The company that runs the troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan announced on Wednesday that a fire was burning there, just hours after officials said flames that erupted on Tuesday had been doused. (In Pics: Japan earthquake triggers tsunami)Soon after that announcement, a government official at Japan's nuclear watchdog agency said...

• Japan PM upset with mishandling of nuclear plant crisis

  Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan Tuesday slammed Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) for its improper handling of the quake-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant at which two explosions led to leaking of radioactive substances into the atmosphere.According to Kyodo news agency, one of its reporters overheard Kan saying to the company's executi...

• Flight ban over Fukushima nuclear plant

  Japan has banned flights within a 30-km range of the Fukushima nuclear plant amid radiation fears due to a series of explosions at the facility on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.The ban by the transport ministry excludes aircraft engaged in search and rescue operations. It is not expected to have a major impact on scheduled commercial flights, Xinhua cit...

• Residents evacuated from nuclear risk areas

  Radiation continued to leak on Tuesday from a crippled nuclear plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan after a third reactor was rocked by an explosion early on Tuesday and a fourth caught fire in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day-old catastrophe. Evacuees from areas around the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant took refuge in the nearby c...

• 'Japan will rise again'

  Although the situation in Japan continues to be worrisome in the nuclear aftermath of the earthquake fed tsunami, city-based Japanese nationals hope that the country would soon get back on its feet. For 73 year-old Teruko Matsuoka, a Bangalore-based Japanese homemaker, this is not the first disaster that the country has experienced. During her chil...

• Japan nuclear crisis: Foreign nationals, journalists asked to leave Sendai

  All foreign nationals, journalists have been asked by their respective governments to leave Sendai in Japan. The directive comes after a third explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The explosion reportedly damaged the containment valve of the reactor, thereby raising concerns about increased radioactivity in the air.NDTV crew too ...

• Japanese PM asks people to stay indoors

  Radiation is spewing from damaged reactors at a crippled nuclear power plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day-old catastrophe. The Japanese Prime Minister has warned residents to stay inside or risk getting radiation sickness.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said on Tuesday that a fourth reactor at the ...

• Tokyo airports packed as passengers queue to leave Japan

  Hundreds of foreigners continued to leave Japan on Monday amid heightened fears over the safety of the country's nuclear plants.Long queues could be seen at the departure terminal of the Haneda Airport.French Chef Christine Pontoizeau, who works in Japan said, "My family and friends are really worried so I'm trying to figure out how to go back to F...