Japan’s police agency says more than 8,600 people are dead and 12,800 are listed as missing after last week’s earthquake and tsunami.

A powerful earthquake hit Tokyo and nearby areas shortly after dawn today, halting trains and forcing two nuclear reactors to shut down for safety checks.

A powerful earthquake rattled northern Japan, injuring more than 100 people, triggering landslides and cutting power to thousands of households.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked a rural, mountainous area of northern Japan today, killing at least three people, triggering landslides, stopping train service and knocking down a bridge.

The man who killed seven people in a stabbing rampage in Tokyo had an arsenal of knives during the attack, police said today.

A 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Japan’s north-west coast today, killing at least seven people, injuring hundreds and damaging a nuclear reactor that reportedly leaked water containing radioactive material.

Five Japanese youngsters have been found dead inside a sealed van in an apparent group suicide, authorities said today.

The number of suicides in Japan rose marginally last year, keeping the toll above 30,000 for the eighth straight year, amid a spate of suicide pacts forged over the internet.

A record number of Japanese people died in group suicides involving the internet in 2005, but an online crackdown has slowed the pace, police said today.

A Japanese college student was today sentenced to two years in jail, suspended for three years, for his part in a group suicide attempt that left one dead.

At least 1,700 women from Latin America and the Caribbean are lured each year into sexual slavery in Japan’s huge illicit sex industry, according to a new report being presented today.

SIX people were found dead in two cars over the weekend in Japan’s latest group suicides.

Six people were found dead in two cars over the weekend in Japan’s latest group suicides.

EMERGENCY workers struggled to rush food and blankets to evacuation centres as strong aftershocks jolted an earthquake-shattered swath of northern Japan yesterday, killing 25 people and driving 100,000 from their homes.

The death toll from Japan’s deadliest typhoon in more than a decade rose to 67 today as rescue workers digging through sludge from mudslides found four more bodies and the nation tried to assess the extent of damage. Twenty-one people were still missing.

Japan’s deadliest storm in more than a decade unleashed flash floods that washed away entire hillsides, killing up to 51 people and leaving at least 30 people missing before it veered east into the Pacific Ocean today.

Police said one person had died, at least six others were missing and 15 injured as a powerful typhoon lashed southern Japan with heavy rains today, disrupting air traffic, prompting the evacuation of thousands of households and leaving thousands more without electricity.

POLICE found the bodies of seven young people in a van outside Tokyo yesterday in what was believed to be Japan’s biggest-ever group suicide.

At least four people were killed and 30 more injured today when a powerful typhoon hit southern Japan.

Three members of the cult responsible for a deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo’s subway were arrested today for suspected involvement in an attempt to assassinate Japan’s police chief in the days after the gas attack.

Japan ordered riot police to patrol airports and guard nuclear plants and beefed up security at other key facilities nationwide, in a precaution against terror attacks as the country deploys troops in Iraq.

Japan intensified security at airports, nuclear plants and government facilities today as a precaution against a possible terror attack.

Nearly a dozen people were missing today after a tropical storm pummelled its way through northern Japan.

Tropical storm Chataan killed four people today as it struck along the coastline of northern Japan, burying an elderly man in a landslide and sweeping away a woman and her house in a flash flood.

More than 160 passengers aboard a Chinese plane were feared dead after the aircraft crashed near one of the World Cup host cities in bad weather early today.

Japan’s National Police Agency is to set up its own version of the FBI to help deal with the growing globalisation of crime brought about by the Internet, it has been reported.

At least two people have been killed after an earthquake hit southwestern Japan.