Former chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano has been named as Japan’s new trade and economy minister.

RESCUERS and search parties were scouring central Japan yesterday as the death toll from the worst typhoon to hit the country in seven years climbed to 26, adding more misery to a nation still reeling from a catastrophic tsunami six months ago.

JAPAN’S premier-designate Yoshihiko Noda has vowed to provide a safe pair of hands in rebuilding the country from its tsunami-nuclear disasters after he was elected the ruling party chief.

Japan’s ruling party has elected Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda as its new chief, meaning he will almost certainly become the next prime minister and inherit the challenge of rebuilding from the country’s disasters.

A close race was emerging for Japan’s ruling party to select a new leader to replace prime minister Naoto Kan, with five men declaring their candidacy today to compete in the weekend campaign.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is to resign after almost 15 months in office.

Moody's Investors Service downgraded Japan's credit rating, citing the country's weak growth prospects, massive government debt and constant political turmoil.

Japan will have a new prime minister by early next week, a Cabinet minister said today.

Japan’s new disaster reconstruction minister resigned today after his widely criticised behaviour during a visit to the quake-devastated north east coast, where he refused to shake a governor’s hand, scolded the official and threatened to withhold aid.

THE operator of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant moved closer to ending its radiation crisis yesterday with the start of a system to cool damaged reactors that could also help avoid dumping highly contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

A senior member of Japan’s ruling party says the prime minister could resign before August.

Protesters in Tokyo are staging mass demonstrations against the use of nuclear power, as Japan marks the three-month anniversary of the powerful earthquake and tsunami that killed tens of thousands and triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters.

Japan’s unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan refused to resign today as opposition politicians criticising his disaster management prepared to file a no-confidence motion in parliament.

JAPAN has unveiled new plans to contain the crisis at a crippled nuclear plant after admitting it faced greater challenges than first disclosed.

Japan is scrapping plans to generate half its energy needs from nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

A VULNERABLE Japanese nuclear power station is to be closed amid safety fears.

A vulnerable Japanese nuclear power station is to be closed amid safety fears.

JAPANESE officials said they were committed to nuclear power despite calls from the prime minister for a plant to close.

Japan’s prime minister has ordered three reactors to be shut down in central Japan because of safety concerns in the event of a major earthquake.

AT 14.46 on March 11, Japan was hit by one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history. We are now making all-out efforts to restore livelihoods and recover from the series of tragedies that followed the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Japan declared a 12-mile area evacuated around its radiation-spewing nuclear power plant a no-go zone today, urging residents to abide by the order for their own safety or possibly face fines or detention.

A PAIR of thin robots on treads sent to explore buildings inside Japan’s crippled nuclear reactor came back with disheartening news: radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today promised solidarity and support for Japan as it recovers from a devastating earthquake and tsunami and copes with a nuclear crisis.

JAPAN raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant to a severity on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.

Japan's prime minister has made a public appeal for calm after raising the severity level of the nuclear plant crisis to the highest rating - on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

JAPAN has widened the evacuation zone around a stricken nuclear plant a month on from a huge natural disaster as another 7.1 magnitude quake and tsunami alert strained nerves anew.

PRIME Minister Naoto Kan promised yesterday he would “never abandon” survivors of Japan’s tsunami as he tried to focus attention on the future, despite a high-stakes battle at a nuclear plant.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan paid another visit to Japan’s tsunami-devastated coast today, promising officials in a fishing-dependent city that his government will do whatever it can to help.

THE operator of Japan’s crippled nuclear power plant said it had found water with five million times the legal limit of radioactivity as it struggles for a fourth week to contain the world’s biggest nuclear disaster in quarter of a century.

Japan’s tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant is leaking highly radioactive water into the sea, nuclear safety officials said.

JAPANESE Prime Minister Naoto Kan said yesterday he was ready for a long fight to bring a quake- hit nuclear plant under control but was convinced Japan would overcome the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

Japan’s prime minister has promised to win the battle against an overheating nuclear plant even as atomic safety officials questioned the accuracy of radiation measurements at the complex.

Japan says the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant will have to be shut down - after sustaining catastrophic damage during the earthquake and tsunami.

New readings show radiation levels continue to rise in the ocean outside a leaking nuclear plant in Japan's north east, officials said today, as they debated whether to broaden the evacuation zone around the tsunami-damaged facility.

Japan has promised to overhaul nuclear safety standards once it regains control of the wrecked Fukushima complex, admitting its current safeguards were not enough.

Japan was on “maximum alert” to bring its nuclear crisis under control, the prime minister insisted today.

THE World Health Organisation says radiation in food after an earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear plant was more serious than previously thought, eclipsing signs of progress in a battle to avert a catastrophic meltdown in its reactors.

SIRENS wailed along a devastated coastline to mark exactly one week since an earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear emergency, and the government acknowledged it was slow to respond to the disasters that the prime minister called a “great test for the Japanese people.”

Emergency crews are still battling to cool overheated nuclear fuel at a stricken nuclear plant a week after the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan.

The Japanese government says it was overwhelmed by the scale of to the huge earthquake and tsunami, slowing the response to the nuclear crisis.

THEY are known as the Fukushima 50, the workers who stayed behind at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in order to prevent a meltdown in Japan.