Prefecture

Obsession of the moment: Hasami porcelain plates and bowls released in a new matte black finish by the Japanese design importer TGS, or Tortoise General Store, in Venice. The Hasami porcelain is beautiful in its spare simplicity and smart function. The pieces nest nicely for storage. Optional oak lids pair well with the stone bowls and can be used separately as serving trays. TGS co-owner Keiko Shinomoto says  the collection has a nice back story too: It's part of a project in the southern Japanese town of Hasami, where a pottery tradition that dates to 1599 is ailing because of -- can you guess?

Japan's battle to control the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima suffered a setback Monday after plumes of smoke rising from two of the six reactor buildings forced an evacuation of repair crews and stalled operations to restore vital cooling systems. It was unclear early Tuesday what had had produced the smoke, which came from the structures housing reactors No. 2 and 3. But some Japanese scientists said the problems didn't appear to signal a deteriorating situation at Fukushima, where workers had been making progress in the painstaking work to contain the nuclear crisis.

Hundreds are dead after the worst earthquake in generations struck off the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, setting off a devastating tsunami that swallowed swaths of coastal territory and fanned out across the Pacific Ocean, threatening everything in its path. The 8.9-magnitude earthquake -- the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the biggest in Japan in 140 years -- struck at 2:46 p.m. local time, shaking buildings violently in Tokyo for several minutes and sending millions fleeing for higher ground.

An 80-year-old woman and her 16-year-old grandson were rescued Sunday after being buried under rubble for nine days after the worst recorded earthquake in Japanese history and a massive tsunami toppled their home. The two were trapped in their kitchen after the magnitude 9 temblor struck March 11 and survived by wrapping themselves in towels and eating yogurt and drinking, water, milk and Coke, Japanese news reports said. Sumi Abe had been unable to free herself after her legs were wedged under the refrigerator.

An avalanche killed 13 people and buried 11 houses under snow in Niigata prefecture on the Japan Sea coast, police said Monday. About 800 policemen and firefighters took part in rescue efforts.

A car swerving to avoid an oncoming vehicle slammed into a line of elementary school children Friday on a hilly road in eastern Japan, killing five and seriously injuring four others, police said. The accident occurred near Chonan, a small town in Chiba prefecture east of Tokyo, as 91 school children walked in two lines toward festivities celebrating Sports Day, a national holiday.

The United States is on the verge of permanently damaging its alliance with Japan in a dispute over a military base in Okinawa. This island prefecture hosts three-quarters of all U.S. military facilities in Japan. Washington wants to build one more base there, in an ecologically sensitive area. The Okinawans vehemently oppose it, and tens of thousands gathered last month to protest the base. Tokyo is caught in the middle, and it looks as if Japan's prime minister has just caved in to the U.S. demands.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters on Sunday that his country was facing its most difficult challenge since World War II and called on his people to unite in the face of a devastating earthquake and tsunami and potential nuclear crisis. "This is the toughest crisis in Japan's 65 years of postwar history," Kan said during a televised news conference. "I'm convinced that we can overcome the crisis. " The prime minister's remarks came on a day when search-and-rescue teams struggled to reach battered parts of the northeast obstructed by mud and debris and new fears emerged over a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear complex.

Japan has sent thousands of rescue workers to the northeastern coastal area devastated by Friday's earthquake, including officials attempting to prevent a meltdown at a nuclear reactor damaged in the quake. The death toll from the 8.9-magnitude quake and associated tsunami reached 680 Saturday and may reach 1,000, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. According to official figures, 642 people are missing and 1,426 injured. Photos: Scenes from the earthquake Officials in Miyagi prefecture said 10,000 residents, more than half the population of the town of Minami-Sanriku, couldn't be located after the earthquake, NHK reported.

In an attempt to boost Japan's image in environmental matters, government officials announced Wednesday that they will scrap plans to build a landfill airport near a rare stand of blue coral off a remote island in Okinawa prefecture. Junji Nishime, the governor of Okinawa, told a news conference that the prefectural, or state, government was responding to international criticism and vociferous local protest in deciding to move the airport project to a new site about two miles north of the original site.

Japanese officials are girding the nation for months of hardship, warning about ongoing rolling electricity blackouts and asking quake refugees to move elsewhere in the country, as it became clear that even temporary homes won't be quickly built. About 380,000 people were living in shelters. In Miyagi prefecture, one of the worst-hit, Gov. Yoshihiro Murai asked survivors to relocate, because replacement housing would not be ready for as long as a year, local media said. Photos: In Japan, life amid crisis "Living conditions will improve if they move away.

Most of the dozens of tsunami-battered towns along Japan's northeastern coast remain mired in mud, but the situation in Ishinomaki is a bit different. Nearly a week after the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the city of 162,000, large portions remain underwater, an instant lake clearly visible on NASA satellite photographs. Amid the aqueous landscape looms Hideaki Akaiwa, 43, in full battle gear. In a nation of careful dressers, Akaiwa sports Rambo-style army pants, a blue sweatshirt, muddy sneakers, legs wrapped in plastic secured with orange duct tape, and three different backpacks, including an L.L. Bean fanny pack with a tiny plastic anime character affixed, a doctor that saves people.

The enormity of the human toll from Japan's worst earthquake in recorded history pressed persistently into the consciousness of the island nation's rattled citizens as rescue workers extracted thousands more bodies from the coastal wastelands that were once thriving communities. More than 1,000 bodies washed ashore Monday in Miyagi prefecture, the northeastern area hardest hit by the magnitude 8.9 quake that struck offshore on Friday and the devastating tsunami it triggered. Search-and-rescue crews, now finding few survivors among the waterlogged debris, extracted about 2,000 corpses on the fourth day of the disaster that Prime Minister Naoto Kan has proclaimed Japan's greatest national tragedy since World War II. Confronted with an escalating threat from three reactors at a nuclear power plant damaged by the earthquake, Kan's government turned to the International Atomic Energy Agency with an appeal for "expert missions" to help avert major releases of radioactivity.

The number of missing and feared dead in Japan's epic earthquake soared Sunday as a reeling nation struggled to contain an unprecedented nuclear crisis, pluck people in tsunami-inundated areas to safety, quell raging blazes and provide aid to hundreds of thousands of frightened people left homeless and dazed. A police chief in the battered Miyagi prefecture told disaster relief officials that he expected the death toll to rise to 10,000 in his prefecture alone, the Kyodo News Agency said.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters on Sunday that his country was facing its most difficult challenge since World War II and called on his people to unite in the face of a devastating earthquake and tsunami and potential nuclear crisis. "This is the toughest crisis in Japan's 65 years of postwar history," Kan said during a televised news conference. "I'm convinced that we can overcome the crisis. " The prime minister's remarks came on a day when search-and-rescue teams struggled to reach battered parts of the northeast obstructed by mud and debris and new fears emerged over a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear complex.

The death toll from Friday's 8.9 earthquake in Japan exceeded 687 as of Saturday midnight, according to a police tally reported by Kyodo News Agency, and the number of casualties was expected to increase. The news agency reported that an additional 200 to 300 unidentified bodies were transferred to Sendai, Miyagi prefecture. About 300,000 residents had been evacuated Saturday in five prefectures, including Iwate and Fukushima, the news agency reported, citing the Japanese National Police Agency.

Reporting from Nagano, Japan Fame is fleeting, but mountains are eternal. Or so it seems in Nagano, the mountain-ringed city in the center of Honshu, Japan's main island. Nagano had a brief brush with international fame when it hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, but the city center has returned to its former self, a comfortably modern medium-size downtown spread out below the imposing Zenkoji Buddhist Temple. But the mountainous prefecture, or administrative region, encircling it seems ancient, with its Shinto shrines, hot springs and villages trapped in time.

There was a special dance created by a well-known choreographer, as well as DVDs, special posters and pamphlets. Masks and a "cough etiquette" campaign are already ubiquitous. As is lots and lots of soap. Thursday was proclaimed the second annual Global Hand Washing Day, and the U.N. agency that promotes child welfare sought to deliver the message that what is a simple measure is the most effective way to prevent many deadly diseases, including H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu. Every year, 8.8 million children under age 5 die of preventable illnesses worldwide.

Emergency responders have streamed into Japan to aid rescue efforts after the historic magnitude 8.9 earthquake and associated tsunami. Two teams from Doctors Without Borders arrived by helicopter in Japan's Miyagi prefecture Saturday and traveled to the hard-hit northern city of Sendai. The teams include medical and logistical staff such as Dr. Nobuko Kurosaki, a pediatric surgeon and president of the group's Japan division. They have been working in coordination with a Japanese Disaster Medical Assistance Team in an evacuation center in Sendai, where those displaced by flooding and quake damage have been receiving medical care.

Japan has sent thousands of rescue workers to the northeastern coastal area devastated by Friday's earthquake, including officials attempting to prevent a meltdown at a nuclear reactor damaged in the quake. The death toll from the 8.9-magnitude quake and associated tsunami reached 680 Saturday and may reach 1,000, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. According to official figures, 642 people are missing and 1,426 injured. Photos: Scenes from the earthquake Officials in Miyagi prefecture said 10,000 residents, more than half the population of the town of Minami-Sanriku, couldn't be located after the earthquake, NHK reported.