Concrete rubble litters streets lined with shuttered shops and dark windows. A collapsed roof juts from the ground. A ship sits stranded on a stretch of dirt flattened when the tsunami roared across the coastline. And no person in sight.

Japan is marking the second anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami which left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing and more than 300,000 people still displaced.

A Japanese cabinet panel has called for the phasing out of nuclear power over the next three decades as part of an overhaul of the country’s energy policy following the Fukushima meltdowns.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda is assuring shareholders that Japan’s top carmaker has recovered from last year’s disasters even as power shortages continue to dog the country.

For 70-year-old Toshiko Murakami, memories of the terrifying earthquake and tsunami that destroyed much of her seaside town and swept away her sister brought fresh tears, exactly a year after the disaster.

People across Japan today remembered the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck the nation one year ago, killing just over 19,000 people and unleashing the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century.

The Japanese government’s worst-case scenario at the height of the nuclear crisis last year warned that tens of millions of people, including Tokyo residents, might need to leave their homes, according to a leaked report.

Glittering fireworks have exploded as revellers in Australia and Asia welcomed 2012 and people around the world looked forward to bidding adieu to a year marred by natural disasters and economic turmoil.

The New Year’s Eve parties started a whole day early on the South Pacific island nation of Samoa, after a hop across the international date line transported the country 24 hours "into the future" – making it the first in the world to ring in the new year.

Asian stocks markets fell today, with trading thinned by year-end holidays and mixed economic news out of the US and Japan.

JAPAN’S response to the nuclear crisis that followed the March 11 tsunami was confused and riddled with problems, including an erroneous assumption an emergency cooling system was working and a delay in disclosing dangerous radiation leaks, a report revealed yesterday.

Japan is set to declare that the tsunami-devastated Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant has finally achieved a “cold shutdown”, meaning it has stabilised and is no longer leaking substantial amounts of radiation.

Radioactive water leaked inside a nuclear power plant in south-western Japan but did not escape into the environment, the government said today.

A strong earthquake has struck Japan, near the nuclear power plant which was hit by a tsunami earlier this year.

HONDA’S human-shaped robot can now run faster, balance itself on uneven surfaces, hop on one foot and pour a drink.

A POWERFUL typhoon slammed into Japan’s east coast yesterday, leaving six people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged north-east.

A powerful typhoon is bearing down on Japan’s ravaged north-eastern coast today, approaching a nuclear power plant crippled in the tsunami disaster and prompting calls for the evacuation of more than a million people.

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

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.

The utility company behind the unfolding Japanese nuclear disaster has reported a 571.7 billion yen (€5.17bn) quarterly loss, and its president is expecting the red ink to swell further over restoration and compensation costs.

Japan’s industrial production rose for the third straight month in June as the world’s third biggest economy stages a recovery from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

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.

The UN nuclear watchdog voted today to report Syria to the UN Security Council for violating its safeguard agreements, citing Syria’s undeclared construction of a covert nuclear reactor and refusal to supply information.

Honda workers are taking 14 additional days off during June through August because of production reductions caused by parts shortages, but will make up for those days later in the year.

JAPAN will send nearly 25,000 soldiers backed by boats and aircraft into its disaster zone today on an intensive land-and-sea mission to recover the bodies of those killed by last month’s earthquake and tsunami, the military said.

The world must prepare for more nuclear accidents on the scale of Chernobyl and Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, the UN chief warned, saying that grim reality will demand sharp improvements in international co-operation.

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’s nuclear safety agency raised the severity rating of the crisis at its nuclear plant to the highest level today, on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

The utility company that runs the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant said today two workers were killed when the wave swept ashore.

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

Japanese nuclear safety officials say they suspect that the reactor core at one unit of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant may have breached.

Japanese Emperor Akihito has addressed the nation, expressing his condolences for victims of the massive earthquake and tsunami and telling the nation not to give up.

A new fire has broken out at the No4 reactor unit at Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.

Japan’s central bank pumped billions more into the financial system today to quell fears that the country’s banks could be overwhelmed by the impact of the earthquake and tsunami.

The second hydrogen blast in three days rocked Japan’s earthquake-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant today, sending a massive column of smoke into the air and injuring 11 people.