TOKYO (Reuters) – The possibility of a nuclear power-free summer in Japan draws closer when one of two remaining reactors shuts down for on Monday for maintenance, raising concerns about a power crunch if none of those taken off-line after the Fukushima crisis is restarted.

Anti-nuclear activists may applaud the prospect that the reactors that supplied nearly 30 percent of Japan’s electricity before the March 2011 disaster will be shut down. But experts say firms will have to bear a costly burden and that mandatory limits on power use may be necessary to avoid blackouts.

TOKYO, March 21 (Reuters) – Japan’s scandal-hit Olympus Corp
on Wednesday unveiled three new medical products it
hopes will help it out of the crisis left by a huge accounting
fraud which erupted last year, threatening to destroy the
92-year-old firm.

Better known for its cameras, the company is pinning its
future on medical equipment and in particular diagnostic
endoscopes in which it already controls about 70 percent of the
global market.

TOKYO, March 16 (Reuters) – Japan’s nuclear regulator
may have contributed to last year’s nuclear disaster by
rejecting global standards for disaster response out of fear
doing so would undermine public trust, Trade Minister Yukio
Edano said on Friday.

The blocking of the measures, revealed in documents released
this week, was the latest sign of lax nuclear oversight that
critics have blamed for a failure to prepare for a disaster on
the scale of the one at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

OFUNATO, Japan (Reuters) – With a moment of silence, prayers and anti-nuclear rallies, Japan marked on Sunday one year since an earthquake and tsunami killed thousands and set off a radiation crisis that shattered public trust in atomic power and the nation’s leaders.

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a wall of water that hit Japan’s northeast coast, killing nearly 16,000 and leaving nearly 3,300 unaccounted for. The country is still grappling with the human, economic and political costs.

OFUNATO, Japan (Reuters) – With a minute of silence, prayers and anti-nuclear rallies, Japan marks on Sunday the first anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands and set off a radiation crisis that shattered public trust in atomic power and the nation’s leaders.

A year after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a wall of water that hit Japan’s northeast coast, killing nearly 16,000 and leaving nearly 3,300 unaccounted for, the country is still grappling with the human, economic and political costs.

OFUNATO, Japan (Reuters) – With a minute of silence, tolling bells and prayers, Japan will on Sunday mark the first anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands and set off a nuclear crisis that shattered public trust in atomic power and the nation’s leaders.

A year after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a wall of water that hit Japan’s northeastern coast, killing nearly 16,000 and leaving nearly 3,300 unaccounted for, the country is still grappling with the human, economic and political costs.

RIKUZENTAKATA, Japan (Reuters) – Japanese police painstakingly search the river and shoreline for bodies of the missing a year after the huge earthquake and tsunami swept away large areas of the fishing town of Rikuzentakata.

Once renowned for a fine beach and seaside pine thicket nestled beneath mountains, the town is now synonymous with the destruction and widespread death wrought by the triple disaster.

TOKYO, March 6 (Reuters) – A year after the Fukushima
nuclear crisis, Japan’s government is still too slow in
providing health checks and information to residents, leaving
them confused and suspicious of authorities, Human Rights Watch
said on Tuesday.

“A year on, we are really not seeing basic health services
being offered in an accessible way and we are not seeing
accurate, consistent, non-contradictory information being
disclosed to people on a regular basis,” Jane Cohen, a
researcher at the New York-based rights group, told Reuters.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Shareholders of Tokyo Electric Power Co Inc, operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan, are suing the utility’s executives for a record 5.5 trillion yen ($67.4 billion) in compensation, lawyers said.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant was wrecked by a quake and tsunami last March, triggering the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century and swamping the firm with huge clean-up, compensation and decommissioning costs.

TOKYO, March 5 (Reuters) – Shareholders of Tokyo
Electric Power Co Inc, operator of the crippled
Fukushima nuclear plant in northeast Japan, are suing the
utility’s executives for a record 5.5 trillion yen ($67.4
billion) in compensation, lawyers said.

The Fukushima Daiichi plant was wrecked by a quake and
tsunami last March, triggering the world’s worst nuclear crisis
in a quarter of a century and swamping the firm with huge
clean-up, compensation and decommissioning costs.