X JAPAN’s ToshI will hold charity concert tour

ToshI, the vocalist of rock band X JAPAN, has announced an upcoming charity concert tour to benefit disaster victims.

The tour will kick off on April 9th. In order to raise support for energy conservation, he will be accompanied by a live orchestra instead of recorded music. He also plans to unveil a new song dedicated to those affected by the disaster, called “Haru no Negai“, as well as auction off some personal items to raise money. Discouraged from performing in affected areas like Northeastern Japan and the Tokyo area due to power outages and safety issues, he nevertheless declared, “We’ll take a look at the situation, but I definitely want to perform in Tokyo and the most affected areas as well.”

The rock vocalist, in a rare gesture, stood up for the victims of the earthquake: “I pray for Japan to recover as soon as possible!”

Four shows covering Western Japan were quickly schedule for the tour. Beginning on April 9 with a performance in Gifu, and then Kanazawa, Osaka, and Fukuoka, the tour will cover 8 shows in four cities. The stages are not part of the area called to cut back on energy consumption to help Tokyo and Northeastern Japan, but in order to support the conservation measure, the singer will use the least energy as possible, singing with a live orchestra instead of recorded music.

In addition, X JAPAN bassist HEATH and LUNA SEA drummer Shinya have agreed to support ToshI’s efforts by participating in the concerts.

Since the earthquake and tsunami hit on the 11th, ToshI has been shocked by the TV news coverage of the wide-spread damage. He was particularly struck by the terrible images of Northeastern Japan’s damage, because he had visited the area in the past for solo concerts. He scrupulously prepared the tour, finding locations, hiring staff, advertising, and gathering volunteers all by himself. He explained, “If there is anything I can do to help, I want to start right away.”

During the show, ToshI will accompany himself on the piano to perform new solo songs, and will also have a jam session with HEATH and Shinya to play some of X JAPAN’s famous hits. Jewelry-designer/Songwriter Shita Akie, who is a mutual friend of ToshI and X JAPAN leader YOSHIKI, wrote the song “Haru no Negai” that ToshI will introduce for the first time. There will also be an auction of X JAPAN and other celebrities’ personal items. All proceeds will be donated to the Japanese Red Cross to benefit the earthquake and tsunami victims.

Sadly, due to power outages and safety issues, ToshI was forced to abandon plans to perform in Northeastern Japan and in the Tokyo area. However, he voiced his support for these areas, saying, “In such a crucial moment, I think it’s wrong for parts of Japan to be separated like this. We’ll take a look at the situation, but I definitely want to perform in Tokyo and the most affected areas as well.” Next he made an appeal to the public: “I applaud everyone’s strength during these hard times. Please help in any way you can.”

source: tokyohive

Read more »

Watanabe Entertainment’s 200 talents band together to aid quake victims

Major entertainment agency Watanabe Entertainment, whose 130 groups comprise of 200 talents, including Nakayama Hideyuki (43), Honjamaka, and Nakagawa Shoko (25), announced on March 15th the “WAE Charity Project ‘~To our circle~ Now is the time to band together!’”

This project is aimed at donating 100,000,000 yen (about $1.2 million USD) to relief efforts for the victims of the earthquake disaster.

In addition to the company’s 100,000,000 yen, all of the agency’s members will be participating in charity auctions online beginning the afternoon of the 18th, and will be offering signed personal items as needed.


They will be also be soliciting donations from fans, and the fees for D*DATE’s ringtones will be donated, as well as the fees for sets of phone standby images from Nakagawa and Shirota Yu (25).

According to Nakayama, their reason for teaming up was, “Because it’s a time like this, I think everyone was thinking about what they each could do for the disaster victims.”

Details about the project can be found at the official site.


source: tokyohive

Read more »

Ayumi Hamasaki and ViVi collaborate to design T-shirt for earthquake relief

It’s been revealed that J-pop princess Ayumi Hamasaki has collaborated with fashion magazine ViVi to produce a charity T-shirt for disaster relief.

Since the initial earthquake on March 11th, Hamasaki has been using Twitter to spread information for victims of the disaster. She continues her helpful efforts with the “Hamasaki Ayumi x ViVi Collabo Charity T-Shirt“, which was designed with the concept of “Love and Hope for Everyone!” All proceeds from the T-shirt will be donated to fund disaster relief efforts.


The shirt will be sold at the online shop mu-mo from March 17th to March 31st, and is open to international fans as well. If you are interested, you can find out details here.


source: tokyohive

Read more »

AKB48 donates $6.2 million USD for disaster relief

Yesterday it was announced that AKB48 has set up two bank accounts in collaboration with the Japan Red Cross Society in order to give their fans an easy and secure way to donate money for the disaster relief efforts.

It was already known that the members of AKB48 and its sister groups have already contributed to the accounts, but the exact amount hasn’t been revealed until today. According to Sanspo, Akimoto Yasushi, all the members of AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, SDN48, as well as their management AKS and the staff of Akimoto’s office have donated a total of 500 million Yen ($6.2 million USD).


The girls commented that it was natural for them to contribute to the disaster relief, but at the same time they are trying to think of more ways to support all the people affected by the calamity. We can probably look forward to various more charity events from the idol groups.

You can find more details about the bank accounts in the Sanspo link below or at AKB48’s official blog here.

source: tokyohive

Read more »

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda creates T-shirts for disaster relief

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has recently created two charity T-shirts, the proceeds of which will be donated to the victims of the Tohoku Pacific Ocean earthquake.

On March 11th, Mike asked his followers on Twitter about which of the two T-shirts they would want to see being used for the tsunami/earthquake survivors. Both shirts were received well, so Mike is now going to sell both of them. The first one is a butterfly made from origami, and the second one says “Not Alone” with the Japanese flag as layered over it.


Furthermore, Mike and the other Linkin Park members will be leading fundraising through their charity organization, “Music for Relief”.

According to Mike’s blog, you can purchase the T-shirts at the Linkin Park store. They wrote, “All proceeds will be donated to Music for Relief to help survivors of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami.”

You can also text ‘MFR’ to 85944 to donate $10 USD to ‘Tsunami Relief’, or you can donate online

source: tokyohive

Read more »

KARA to donate all income from “Jet Coaster Love” towards disaster relief

In light of the recent tragedies in Japan, KARA will be donating all their income from their new single “Jet Coaster Love” towards disaster relief efforts.

A representative from DSP Media stated, “…for the victims of the earthquakes and tsunamis, all of the proceeds from KARA’s new single will be donated.”


They added,“The KARA members are very hurt for the Japanese people and fans who have showed them so much love. They’re constantly looking for updates on the internet and television… They were looking for a way to help victims, and decided on donating the money from their new single.”

source: tokyohive

Read more »

GLAY contributes $240,000 USD to disaster relief

On March 14th, J-rock band GLAY donated 20 million yen (~$240,000 USD) to aid with the disaster relief through the Asahi Shimbun Social Welfare Organization.

Members TAKURO, HISASHI, JIRO, and TERU expressed, “In midst of the continuing aftershocks, we hope we can be of even a little help to the people who are suffering in the disaster … We will continue praying that the damages don’t escalate further.”


GLAY has actively done charity work in the past, keeping in mind the following message: “Is there something we can do for society, other than singing?“. Last year, they donated 93 uniforms (valued at ~$12,000 USD) to students at a middle school in the bankrupt city of Yubari, with TAKURO and TERU handing them out personally. When Miyazaki prefecture had a problem with foot-and-mouth disease, they donated 1 million yen (~$12,000 USD) through a local news agency.

source: tokyohive

Read more »

Race to avert a meltdown: Third blast rocks nuclear plant and hundreds contaminated as 180,000 flee

By DAVID DERBYSHIRE and RICHARD SHEARS


Disaster: A satellite picture shows the remains of four reactors - by last night three of them had been hit by explosions. Nuclear experts were battling to bring the situation at the Fukushima plant under control


Radiation spewing from explosion at fourth reactor

PM extends exclusion zone to 19 miles and warns residents to stay inside

Third explosion last night raises fears of nuclear meltdown

Latest blast in number two reactor - previous blasts in reactors one and three


A desperate race against time to avert a nuclear meltdown was under way in Japan last night. The country appealed to the U.S. for help to control three overheating reactors crippled by Friday’s devastating earthquake.

The plea came as a second and third explosion rocked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, damaging two reactors.

A senior Japanese politician said there were signs that fuel rods were melting in all three reactors. ‘Although we cannot directly check it, it’s highly likely to be happening,’ said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

Experts said the nightmare scenario was of a meltdown which triggers a massive build-up of pressure inside the containment unit. If the unit cracks, a plume of radioactive dust and gas would spill hundreds of miles into the air.

Fears of that meltdown at a Japanese power plant rose sharply last night after a new explosion was reported in the complex.

It is understood the blast was in the Number 2 reactor, where fuel rods had been in danger of overheating. Explosions have already occurred in the Number 1 and Number 3 reactors.

The new drama occurred because the explosion in the Number 3 reactor had damaged the cooling system in the adjoining reactor, resulting in last night's third blast.

Officials have been struggling to pacify the public's concerns about radioactive material escaping into the atmosphere.

With serious questions now surrounding the safety of the three crippled reactors, many people believe the chances of the material escaping have increased dramatically.


A second explosion rocks the crippled Fukushima Dalichi nuclear plant yesterday (1), (2) smoke starts to pour from the building housing the plant's third nuclear reactor before (3) as the building collapses, the black plume stretches up into the sky


Chaos: The view from a U.S. navy helicopter as it surveys the devastation caused by the tsunami and earthquake in Sendai


Right: Sailors assigned to the Black Knights of Anti-Submarine Squadron load supplies on to an HH-60H Sea Hawk helicopter aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan while left a house bobs along in the Pacific Ocean - such is the chaos caused by the tsunami


Workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant fled last night after a third explosion raised serious concerns about a meltdown.

Embarrassed officials of the Tokyo Electric Power company called a hurried news conference in Tokyo to apologise to the public for 'the inconvenience'.

But they were hesitant in disclosing details about the full extent of the danger to the public.

In the House of Commons, David Cameron said he had ‘severe concerns’ for Britons who were in Japan at the time of the earthquake and tsunami. Thousands of them are still unaccounted for.

In a day of worrying developments:

The official death toll rose to 2,800 but is expected eventually to exceed 10,000.

Two thousand bodies were washed up in two towns in the worst affected area in north-east Japan.

Strong aftershocks persisted in the stricken area, and a 4.1 magnitude earthquake jolted Tokyo at about 8pm British time yesterday.

About 450,000 people have been evacuated nationwide – plus 180,000 from around the nuclear plant, where 190 have been exposed to some form of radiation.

Almost 2million households are without power in the freezing north and about1.4million households have been left without running water.


A woman talks to her daughter who has been isolated after showing signs of radiation near Fukushima


Two other nuclear plants are also thought to be under threat. At Tokai there were also fears of overheating reactors as cooling pumps failed, while high levels of radiation were detected at the nuclear plant at Onagawa.

But the main concern remained the Fukushima plant on the north-east coast, where weary engineers were working around the clock for the fourth day.

Before last night’s third explosion they had been engaged in a last-ditch move to use seawater to cool the overheating core in reactor number two after fuel rods inside it were exposed.

Experts said it was probably the first time in the nuclear industry’s 57-year history that seawater, which is corrosive, has been used to cool fuel rods, a sign of how close Japan may be to a major accident.

Although the plant’s three working reactors shut down automatically when the magnitude nine earthquake struck, the cooling systems which keep the radioactive uranium and plutonium fuel rods cool have been hit by a series of failures.

Earlier yesterday a vast cloud of black smoke erupted from the plant after an explosion – the second in two days – demolished the building housing reactor three.

The explosion was triggered when engineers released steam to prevent a dangerous build-up of pressure inside the sealed reactor. At superheated temperatures inside the core the water vapour had split into hydrogen and oxygen which ignited, destroying the outer building and injuring 11 people, one seriously.

A similar explosion rocked the plant on Saturday when steam was released from another reactor.

Yesterday’s blast left the 80-inch concrete and steel walls which protect the nuclear reactor intact.



Evacuation: Residents shelter in Sendai city in Miyagi after being evacuated from their homes following the blasts at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Hundreds of thousands have been evacuated amid growing fears that the plant could go into meltdown


Rescuers walk through flattened buildings after the recent tsunami in Natori City, Miyagi prefecture


Resilience: A man in a suit walks calmly through a scene of devastation in Sendai, Japan


However, shortly after the explosion, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said it had lost the ability to cool the neighbouring reactor two – the third reactor to suffer cooling problems.

As the engineers tried to inject seawater using fire pumps the water levels dropped twice unexpectedly, leaving the fuel rods uncovered by cooling water. At one point they were exposed for two and a half hours.

Without coolant, fuel rods can overheat and melt. In a serious meltdown, radioactive molten material falls through the floor of the containment vessel into the ground underneath.

The drama at Fukushima has added to the anxiety for locals shellshocked by the quake and tsunami. Many Japanese are sceptical of assurances given by government officials about nuclear leaks, following at least two cover-ups in the wake of dramas in other plants in recent years.

Men in protective suits continued to sweep Geiger counters over terrified survivors, looking for evidence of radiation exposure.


Salvage: A woman saves her possessions from the rubble in Rikuzentakata, northern Japan, left, while right a fire engine has been completely destroyed by the tsunami




After Japan’s request to the United States for help cooling the reactors, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it was considering providing technical advice.

President Barack Obama offered any help the U.S. could provide to help recover from its ‘multiple disasters’.

The U.S. Navy moved ships away from the devastated north-east Japanese coast after 17 helicopter crews helping in the rescue efforts were contaminated with radiation. The crews were treated on an aircraft carrier.

Scientists say there are serious dangers but little risk of a catastrophe similar to the 1986 blast in Chernobyl, where the reactor did not have a containment shell.

Some said the length of time since the crisis began showed the chemical reactions inside the reactor were not moving quickly toward a complete meltdown.

Even so, the nuclear danger has prompted several countries to warn against travelling to and staying in Japan. In Britain, the Foreign Office advised against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and the north-east of Japan.

Disaster shows nuclear should be scrapped, say green groups
Green campaigners wasted no time in exploiting the disaster, claiming it proved nuclear power could never be safe.

Greenpeace warned that Japan faced a nuclear meltdown, while the Green Party called on the Coalition to scrap its nuclear programme.

Green Party leader and MP Caroline Lucas also called for an EU level inquiry into the wider implications of the nuclear accident.

Steve Campbell, of Greenpeace, said: ‘This proves once and for all that nuclear power cannot ever be safe. Japan’s nuclear plants were built with the latest technology, specifically to withstand natural disasters, yet we still face potential meltdown.’

Greenpeace was also concerned about the lack of data on the total amount of radiation already released, and whether the areas where spent radioactive fuel is dumped – outside the containment area of the reactor – were secure.

But nuclear scientists said the earthquake had highlighted how Japan’s power stations were robust.

Professor Paddy Regan, a nuclear physicist at Surrey University, said: ‘We had a doomsday earthquake in a country with 55 nuclear power stations and they all shut down perfectly, although three have had problems since.

‘This was a huge earthquake, and as a test of the resilience and robustness of nuclear plants it seems they have withstood the effects very well.’

Chris Huhne, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, has ordered a review of the safety of the country’s nuclear reactors. The UK is poised to build a new generation of nuclear power stations over the next decade.


LATEST NEWS Explosion rocks third Japanese reactor 3/14/2011


source: dailymail

Read more »

Tide of death: 2,000 bodies wash ashore on one stretch of coast as scientists warn Japan faces SECOND monster quake and tsunami

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER


Devastating: A woman sobs on a road as she surveys the destroyed city of Natori in the region of Miyagi in northern Japan


Second 'monster' quake could measure have magnitude of 8

Terrible tide of at least 2,000 bodies wash up on the coastline

Crews fight to bring reactor at nuclear power plant under control

Millions left without food and power and hospitals have no medicine


Devastated Japan today faced the prospect of a second massive earthquake and tsunami even as millions of citizen struggled to come to terms with its biggest-ever natural disaster.

Over 2,000 bodies had been washed ashore on the country's decimated coastline - raising fears the death toll could be higher than previously thought.

While the official death toll stood at nearly 1,900, the discovery of the washed-up bodies and other reports of deaths suggest the true number is much higher. In Miyagi, the police chief has estimated 10,000 people could have been killed by the quake and tsunami alone.


Bird's eye view: A photograph of the devastation in Sendai taken from a U.S. military helicopter


Grim: The Panaese army search for bodies in Higashimatsushima City, in Miyagi, the state where up to 10,000 people may have died


Crematoriums were overflowing with the dead and rescue workers ran out of body bags as the nation faced the reality of its mounting crisis.

The bodies washed up had been found on the shoreline in Miyagi on the eastern coast of the country.

Millions were still without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures in the devastated north-east. An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1 jolted the Tokyo area around 5am on Tuesday - 8pm on Monday in the UK.

Though Japanese officials have refused to speculate on the death toll, Indonesian geologist Hery Harjono, who dealt with the 2004 Asian tsunami, said it would be 'a miracle really if it turns out to be less than 10,000' dead.

Meanwhile, a third reactor at a nuclear power plant lost its cooling capacity and the fuel rods at another were at least briefly fully exposed, raising fears of a meltdown.

The stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda following the 9.0 magnitude quake on Friday.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the nation faced its worst crisis since World War II. Kan said last night in a television address that the nation's future will be decided by the choices made by each Japanese and urged all to join in their determination to rebuild the nation following a massive earthquake and tsunami.


People walk a road between the rubble of destroyed buildings in Minamisanriku town, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, three days after the earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 struck


Laid waste: Huge swathes of land were destroyed when the tsunami hit Sendai in Miyagi province, sweeping away everything in its path



Screening: A mother tries to talk to her daughter who had been isolated for signs of radiation after evacuating from the vicinity of Fukushima's nuclear plants (left). She then drops down to talk to the family dog


Waiting for rescue: Isolated survivors sit around a fire and await help in a makeshift camp near Ishinomaki, northern Japan


Experts are now warning a second huge quake - almost as powerful as the first - could hit the country, triggering another tsunami.

The director of the Australian Seismological Centre, Dr Kevin McCue, told the Sydney Morning Herald that there had been more than 100 smaller quakes since Friday, and a larger aftershock was likely.

'Normally they happen within days.

'The rule of thumb is that you would expect the main aftershock to be one magnitude smaller than the main shock, so you would be expecting a 7.9.

'That's a monster again in its own right that is capable of producing a tsunami and more damage.'


Japan's worst disaster since World War Two: The country's Prime Minister Naoto Kan


Another expert believes Friday's quake is the 'aftershock' of an earlier eruption two days before, in which a 7.2 magnitude explosion shook the Pacific sea floor near the northern Miyagi area.

John McCloskey, a geophysicist at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, told the journal Nature the quakes have 'probably also affected the stress field further south along the fault zone, critically increasing the earthquake risk in the Tokyo region'.

He added that the aftershocks 'may be as large as, or even stronger than, the quake that last month devastated Christchurch in New Zealand', the website Good reported.

That disaster, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, claimed more than 160 lives.

Japan is beginning to take stock of what the prime minister labelled its ‘most severe crisis since the Second World War’, when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japanese police said 1,000 washed up bodies were found scattered today across the coastline of Miyagi prefecture.


Desperate: A 'help' sign is written on the ground of Ohara Primary School near a sea coast covered with the rubble in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture


Scale of the disaster: Rescuers, seen from the air, appear tiny when viewed against the backdrop of carnage and devastation. They were searching for victims of the tsunami in Noda village, Iwate Prefecture, northern Japan


The discovery raised the official death toll to about 2,800, but the Miyagi police chief has said that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in his province alone, which has a population of 2.3million.

In one town in a neighbouring prefecture, the crematorium was unable to handle the crush of bodies being brought in for funerals.

'We have already begun cremations, but we can only handle 18 bodies a day,' said Katsuhiko Abe. 'We are overwhelmed and are asking other cites to help us deal with bodies. We only have one crematorium in town.'

In Japan most people opt to cremate their dead, a process that, like burial, requires permission first from local authorities. But the government took the rare step today of waiving the paperwork to speed up funerals.

A Health Ministry spokesman said: 'The current situation is so extraordinary, and it is very likely that crematoriums are running beyond capacity.


Wrecked... Upturned cars litter the landscabem buildings have collapsed as Miyagi Prefecture lies in ruins



Wave of destruction: The ruined shoreline of Sendai (left) and cars burnt out by fires in the wake of the tsunami lined up nearby


Vast expanse: The process of clearing the wreckage has been slow despite 100,000 troops being deployed to help scour the debris


'This is an emergency measure. We want to help quake-hit people as much as we can.'

Friday's double tragedy has caused unimaginable deprivation. In many areas there is no running water, no power and four- to five-hour waits for petrol . People are suppressing hunger with instant noodles or rice balls while dealing with the loss of loved ones and homes.

'People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming,' said a government official in Iwate prefecture, one of the three hardest hit.

He said authorities were receiving just 10 per cent of the food and other supplies they need. Body bags and coffins were running so short that the government may turn to foreign funeral homes for help, he said.


Carnage: Tsunami has left a scene of devastation that will cost billions to repair


Evacuees, who fled from the vicinity of Fukushima nuclear power plant, rest at an evacuation center set in a gymnasium in Kawamata, Fukushima





100,000 troops are on the ground across Japan searching for bodies with the death toll expected to be in excess of 10,000 once all the bodies have been discovered


'We have requested funeral homes across the nation to send us many body bags and coffins. But we simply don't have enough,' he said.

'We just did not expect such a thing to happen. It's just overwhelming.'

The coast has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks since Friday, the latest one a 6.2 magnitude quake that was followed by a new tsunami scare today.

As sirens wailed, soldiers abandoned their search operations and told residents of the devastated shoreline in Soma, the worst hit town in Fukushima prefecture, to run to higher ground.


People line up to get kerosene in Hitachi in Ibaraki Prefecture (left) while an aerial picture shows the remnants of train tracks in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture


Search parties arrived in Soma for the first time since Friday to dig out bodies.

Ambulances stood by and body bags were laid out in an area cleared of debris, as firefighters used hand picks and chain saws to clear a jumble of broken timber, plastic sheets, roofs, sludge, twisted cars, tangled powerlines and household goods.

Officials said one-third of the city of 38,000 people was flooded and thousands were missing.

Hundreds of Britons – many of them English language teachers – are among those who have not been traced to date.


Ghostly: The scene of devastation seen from the air. Vast areas have been completely wiped off the map by the tsunami


Reduced to matchsticks: A view of a vast area of tsunami devastated Shizugawa district in Minami Sanriku


Japanese officials have refused to speculate on how high the death toll could rise, but experts who dealt with the 2004 Asian tsunami offered a dire outlook.

'It's a miracle really, if it turns out to be less than 10,000,' said Hery Harjono, a senior geologist with the Indonesian Science Institute, who was closely involved with the aftermath of earlier disaster that killed 230,000 people - of which only 184,000 bodies were found.

He drew parallels between the two disasters - notably that many bodies in Japan may have been sucked out to sea or remain trapped beneath rubble as they did in Indonesia's hardest-hit Aceh province.

But he also stressed that Japan's infrastructure, high-level of preparedness and city planning to keep houses away from the shore could mitigate their losses.


Totally destroyed: The town of Minamisanriku town, Miyagi, where 10,000 people are missing


According to public broadcaster NHK, 430,000 people are living in emergency shelters or with relatives. Another 24,000 people are stranded.

One reason for the loss of power is the damage several nuclear reactors in the area. At one plant, Fukushima Dai-ichi, three reactors have lost the ability to cool down.

Explosions have destroyed the containment buildings of the other two reactors.

More than 180,000 people have evacuated the area around the plants in recent days.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said it has moved its ships and aircraft away from an earthquake-stricken Japanese nuclear power plant after discovering low-level radioactive contamination.

The fleet said today that the radiation was from a plume of smoke and steam released from the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant, which has been hit by two explosions since Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami.


Chilling: The destruction caused by the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, right, caused similar devastation. Left a survivor in Otsuchi, Iwate, looks through a family photo album as the country struggles to come to terms with the scale of the disaster


The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was about 100 miles (160km) offshore when its instruments detected the radiation.

But the fleet said the dose of radiation was about the same as one month's normal exposure to natural background radiation in the environment.

Tokyo Electric Power held off on imposing rolling blackouts planned for today, but called for people to try to limit electricity use.

Many regional train lines were suspended or operating on a limited schedule to help reduce the power load.

Japan's central bank injected 15 trillion yen (£114 billion) into money markets to stem worries about the world's third-largest economy.

Shares fell on the first business day after the disasters. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average shed nearly 634 points, or 6.2%, to 9,620.49, extending losses from Friday. Escalating concerns over the fallout of the disaster triggered a plunge that hit all sectors.

Japan's economy has been ailing for 20 years, barely managing to eke out weak growth between slowdowns. It is saddled by a massive public debt that, at 200% of gross domestic product, is the biggest among industrialised nations.

Preliminary estimates put repair costs from the earthquake and tsunami in the tens of billions of dollars - a huge blow for an already fragile economy that lost its place as the world's No. 2 to China last year.




source: dailymail

Read more »