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The article focuses on Japan's meteorological agency warning of an increased likelihood of a major earthquake in the coming days following a recent 7.1-magnitude quake off Kyushu, with fears of a potential "Nankai Trough megathrust earthquake" causing extensive damage.

The article offers information on a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in western Japan, triggering tsunami warnings, evacuation orders, and causing damage and casualties.

This article discusses the efforts of residents of Fukushima, Japan, like Akinori Iwamura, to improve the area's image through sports. Topics covered include the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami which caused meltdowns and radiation leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the damage to Fukushima name due to the disaster at the nuclear plant, and the baseball and softball games to be hosted by the Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The article discusses a court case filed by residents of Fukushima, Japan against the Tokyo Electric Power Company and the Japanese government for their negligence in not preventing the nuclear meltdowns set off by a powerful earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

The article profiles automobile company Toyota, as of January 2013. It recounts difficulties the company faced in the 2008-2012 period, including a large safety recall, the effects of the 2011 Sendai Earthquake tsunami on its manufacturing, and financial losses. It says the company is rebounding, citing strong sales growth in 2012. Topics include the effect of the yen's foreign-exchange value, quality control management, and changes to car models.

Corrections to the articles about the mistakes in the cleanup operation of radioactive contamination from nuclear reactors after the 2011 earthquake in Japan and the comments of ESPN announcer Brent Musburger about Katherine Webb that were published in the January 8 and 9, 2013 issues, respectively, are presented.

The article reports on the earthquake that happened off the northeast shore of Honshu Island in Japan on December 7, 2012. According to the National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado, the earthquake was measured at 7.3 magnitude and is the strongest aftershock after the 2011 earthquake. It also cites the warning issued by the NHK to the residents who were complaisant during the event.

The article offers information on the essay contest for the students in All Japan High School Athletic Federation related to their recovery after the tsunami in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2012. It states that the students who win the essay writing contest will be given scholarships. It mentions that the winning essays include a story of a boy who lost his father and a granddaughter honoring her late grandmother through swimming. It presents the winning essay by canoeist Chigusa Nishino.

NIHONMATSU, Japan -- Nobody knows whether Hiroshi Yokoyama's elderly parents tried to outrun the tsunami that engulfed their home in Namie on the Fukushima coast a year ago. But Mr. Yokoyama does know that he would have looked for them high and low, if not for a second disaster that unfolded at the nuclear power plant just a few miles away, forcing him to abandon his search. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Amid a din of percussion and heavily amplified voices and instruments in the Rose Theater of Jazz at Lincoln Center on Tuesday evening came a remarkably understated moment. Not quiet, exactly, since it too was amplified, but simple, intimate, unexpected and soul wrenching. The program, ''Overcoming the Disaster: Gratitude From Japan to the World,'' nearing the first anniversary of the great earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in northeastern Japan, was presented free by the Japan Foundation as part of an international tour to show gratitude to the world for its sympathy, solidarity and support. Dominated by the crack drumming ensemble Ondekoza, the evening also included performances by Wakumizu Kagura, a folk-dance troupe from one of the hardest-hit areas; the Bamboo Orchestra; the Ochi Brothers, a percussion duo; the Umezu Chibi Brass; and various individual artists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ONAGAWA, Japan -- At age 39, Yoshiaki Suda, the new mayor of this town that was destroyed by last March's tsunami, oversees a community where the votes, money and influence lie among its large population of graying residents. But for Onagawa to have a future, he must rebuild it in such a way as to make it attractive to those of his generation and younger. ''That's the most difficult problem,'' Mr. Suda said. ''For whom are we rebuilding?'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WHEN the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck northern Japan last March, the home of Shoji Tanaka, more than 200 miles south of the quake's epicenter, was spared any major damage. But he worked as a volunteer in the disaster zone, supplying clothing and helping with clean-up, and said he was ''appalled by the horrifying damage.'' The experience also provided a creative incentive for Mr. Tanaka, an inventor who is president of Cosmo Power, a Japanese engineering company: It ''spurred me to work hard to complete Noah,'' he says. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TOKYO -- A nuclear reactor in western Japan began starting back up on Tuesday after a month's hiatus, the first reactor in the country closed for any reason to win approval from a local government to resume operations since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that set off the nuclear disaster, a popular backlash against nuclear power has halted the reopening of reactors closed because of damage at the time or unrelated glitches, or for routine inspections. Regulations require reactors to close at least every 13 months for checks, meaning more and more reactors have gone out of service, with none allowed to restart -- until Tuesday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TOKYO -- Despite continued fears over radiation levels, Japan lifted evacuation advisories for an area spanning five towns and cities around a tsunami-ravaged nuclear power plant on Friday, the first such move since multiple fuel meltdowns at the site led to a substantial radiation leak and forced more than 100,000 surrounding residents to flee. The easing was a bid by the government to bring the country a step closer to normalcy after the March 11 quake and tsunami, which destroyed wide areas of Japan's Pacific coast and set off the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. But with lingering fears over radiation levels -- as well as slow progress in decontaminating towns and cities hit by radioactive plumes -- a return to these areas is likely to be slow. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan is making progress in cooling the three damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and should be able to shut them down by year's end, at least a month earlier than expected, the minister in charge of the disaster said Monday. Speaking at an international nuclear energy meeting in Vienna, the minister, Goshi Hosono, also promised to strengthen oversight of Japan's nuclear industry by creating a more independent regulatory body by next spring. The Japanese government is responding to growing criticism at home and abroad of its inability to bring the reactors under control, and also of lax oversight that many say played a role in the accident. Also on Monday, about 60,000 anti-nuclear protesters gathered in Tokyo, in Japan's largest demonstration since a huge earthquake and tsunami crippled the plant on March 11. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Toyota on Tuesday said that it had resumed full production at its North American plants for the first time since it began experiencing parts shortages after the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March. The company, whose sales plunged during the summer as dealers ran low on many popular models, said it planned to run plants on overtime and add Saturday shifts to replenish inventories. It said fourth-quarter production would be about 15 percent higher than originally planned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MINAMISANRIKU, Japan -- Six months after Japan's deadly earthquake and tsunami, the naked steel frame of the former Disaster Management Center stands like a tombstone over the flattened field of weed-covered debris that was once this town's center. People come from near and far to pray before the three-story structure, turning it into a shrine of sorts for the town officials who died here. Amid the white flowers, smoldering incense and bottles of beer and whiskey left to comfort the dead, there are also signs of rancor. A long handwritten letter, laminated to shed the rain, criticizes the failure to tear down the structure as callous disregard for the families of those who perished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- Japan's governing party elected Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday to become the next prime minister, choosing a relative political unknown to lead this shaken nation's recovery from the tsunami and nuclear accident in March and to revive its moribund economy. It was a surprise victory for Mr. Noda, who had been seen as running a distant third before the internal vote by the Democratic Party. During the campaign, Mr. Noda presented himself as a pro-business fiscal conservative who could rein in Japan's ballooning national debt while also taming the soaring yen and battling deflation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese economy contracted less than economists had expected in the second quarter as companies increased spending, signaling that the nation is rebounding from a slump after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March. Gross domestic product shrank at an annualized 1.3 percent rate in the three months ending June 30, posting three consecutive quarters of declines, the Cabinet office said Monday in Tokyo. The median forecast of 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 2.5 percent drop. Capital investment rose 0.2 percent, compared with a revised 1.4 percent decline in the first quarter. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TOKYO -- Citing a quicker than expected recovery from Japan's earthquake, the Toyota Motor Corporation raised its full-year profit forecast by almost 40 percent Tuesday, although it warned that a strong yen continued to weigh on its bottom line. Toyota and other Japanese automakers have staged a striking comeback from the March earthquake and tsunami, as parts makers swiftly repaired their factories or switched production lines. The rebound has come even though manufacturers of all sorts are still contending with electrical shortages in Japan because of still-crippled or idled power plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- Japan on Friday proposed an aggressive plan to spend 13 trillion yen ($167 billion) over five years in hopes of bringing about a swift recovery after its recent natural and nuclear disasters. The Japanese government is desperate to pull the economy out of a recession stemming from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami as well as the problems related to the Fukushima nuclear plant. The catastrophes damaged factories, disrupted supply chains, caused a crippling power shortage and curtailed consumer spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- Sony slashed its annual profit forecast after sinking to a quarterly loss of 15.5 billion yen, or $199 million, on Thursday, as the lingering effects of the Japanese earthquake, a punishingly strong yen and lackluster TV sales affected its bottom line. The electronics and entertainment company, which is based here, said in a statement that it now expected net income of 60 billion yen ($770 million) for the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2012, revising an 80 billion yen ($1 billion) projection it made just two months ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- From their spacious 24th-floor apartment here, Masako Tsubuku and her husband had a breathtaking view of Mount Fuji. They couldn't wait to leave. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

SENDAI, Japan -- It took minutes for the tsunami that hit the coast of Japan in March to destroy entire cities. It will take years to clean up the mess that was left behind. Last week, I visited several garbage dumps in Sendai where debris created on that day was being collected, sorted and destroyed. These were filled with the detritus of people's lives that were upended violently and involuntarily. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An article on Sunday about baseball's role in helping students in Japan resume a routine following the earthquake and tsunami this year misstated the given name of the baseball team manager at Ofunato High School 1984. He is Ryuei Sato, not Shigetomi Sato. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OFUNATO, Japan -- Entering this port city by car these days means confronting nature's fury and its fickleness all at once. The tsunami that hit Japan's northeastern coast four months ago tore through the modest downtown, gutting buildings, crushing cars like beer cans and sweeping shops out to sea. But in areas out of the wave's grasp, homes stand unscathed, rice paddies are still productive, and parks are filled with squealing children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TOKYO TRADERS here are fond of joking that no one has lost money betting against Japan since the collapse of the bubble economy of the 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Businesses requested more airplanes, autos and oil drilling equipment in May, according to a government report released on Tuesday, suggesting that supply disruptions stemming from the Japan crisis were fading. The Commerce Department said factory orders rose 0.8 percent in May. That followed a downwardly revised drop of 0.9 percent in April. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- Japan's newly named minister of disaster reconstruction resigned on Tuesday, dealing another blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who already is reeling from plunging approval ratings and demands to speed up his own resignation. The reconstruction minister, Ryu Matsumoto, was forced to step down after offending local officials during a visit to the northern areas of Japan that bore the brunt of the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Mr. Matsumoto, who assumed the post just last week, angered local governors by confessing his ignorance of local geography, and then showing irritation when one local governor made him wait in a reception room. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's new disaster reconstruction minister submitted his resignation on Tuesday after making remarks that were widely criticized as offensive. During a visit to the country's earthquake-devastated northeast coast over the weekend, the minister, Ryu Matsumoto, refused to shake a governor's hand, scolding the official and threatening to withhold aid. After dressing down the governor, Yoshihiro Murai, Mr. Matsumoto warned journalists in the room not to report his words. They were widely reported in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Car manufacturers reported that overall sales were down 3.7 percent in May compared with the same period a year earlier, a drop attributed in part to shortages at Toyota and Honda after the Japanese earthquake. Manufacturers were also offering fewer incentives. Some car makers did well: Kia had a 53 percent increase in sales from May 2010 to May 2011, Hyundai, 21 percent, and Volkswagen, 24 percent. At General Motors, sales of passenger cars like the Cheverolet Camaro, above, rose by 13 percent. SHELLY FREIERMAN [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor said Friday that it expected its annual profit to fall almost a third from the previous year, hurt by production disruptions after the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March. The company's prediction -- a 31 percent decline in profit to 280 billion yen, or $3.5 billion, for the year ending in March 2012 -- was gloomier than expected. Analysts had been anticipating a profit forecast of about 422 billion yen ($5.3 billion), according to a survey by Bloomberg. In the same period the previous year, Toyota earned 408 billion yen ($5 billion). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

IWAKI-YUMOTO, Japan -- Just after 6 a.m. in this still sleepy hot spring town, bleary-eyed workers emerged from their inns, ready to board buses to return to their daily battle to contain the crisis at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Some men are local technicians who have worked at the plant for years; others are construction workers who have traveled here from across Japan to clear radioactive debris, fix leaking pipes and fill an ever-growing need for fresh labor at the site, devastated in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic activity in the United States continued to grow in April and May, but higher food and energy prices, severe weather conditions and supply disruptions caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan put pressure on consumers, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve released on Wednesday. The central bank's district-by-district report, called the beige book, said that economic activity ''generally continued to expand,'' although at different rates across the country. The pace of growth slowed, for example, in the New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago districts. The Dallas district accelerated, while other areas showed growth continuing at a steady pace, the survey said. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moody's warned Tuesday that it might downgrade its sovereign debt rating for Japan, joining other rating agencies in taking a more pessimistic view of the Japanese economy after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The disaster disrupted an economy that was already struggling with persistently anemic growth, periodic deflation, an aging population and high levels of government debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WASHINGTON -- The threat of a catastrophic release of radioactive materials from a spent fuel pool at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant is dwarfed by the risk posed by such pools in the United States, which are typically filled with far more radioactive material, according to a study released on Tuesday by a nonprofit institute. The report, from the Institute for Policy Studies, recommends that the United States transfer most of the nation's spent nuclear fuel from pools filled with cooling water to dry sealed steel casks to limit the risk of an accident resulting from an earthquake, terrorism or other event. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TOKYO -- The March 11 earthquake and tsunami probably pushed Sony to a $3.2 billion loss in the just-ended fiscal year, the electronics and entertainment giant warned Monday. It was the latest Japanese manufacturer to report a huge financial hit from the disaster. The annual loss would be Sony's biggest in 16 years -- when problems in its movie business, as well as the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, took an economic toll. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea publicly munched on farm produce grown near the stricken Japanese nuclear plant on Saturday in a show of solidarity with Japan's recovery efforts. Premier Wen Jiabao of China and President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea arrived in Japan on Saturday for a two-day meeting that was expected to focus on resolving differences over Japan's handling of the nuclear crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- Japan's economy shrank at an annual rate of 3.7 percent in the first quarter, tipping the country into a recession, as the earthquake and tsunami on March 11 disrupted production and prompted consumers to cut back on spending. The drop off was worse than economists had expected. In a survey of 23 economists, Bloomberg News had projected an average drop of 1.9 percent. It also marked Japan's second straight quarter of economic contraction, leading the country into its second recession in less than three years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- Japan vowed Tuesday to stick to its goal of stabilizing a stricken nuclear power plant in as soon as six months, despite recently acknowledging that damage to the plant's reactors might be worse than initially estimated. The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company, has in the past week offered a graver account of how the accident unfolded after the facility was ravaged by the tsunami that followed the March 11 earthquake. The company now acknowledges that a fuel meltdown occurred at three of the plant's six reactors in the early hours of the crisis, something experts had been suggesting for weeks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strong sales to businesses continued to prop up Dell's earnings in the first quarter despite a weak economy and still-sluggish demand from consumers. Dell's report Tuesday report came on the heels of earnings from Hewlett-Packard, which earlier in the day lowered its forecast for the year on weak personal computer sales, trouble in its services division and the impact of the Japanese earthquake in March. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not all musical groups are following the Metropolitan Opera's lead in forging ahead with tours to post-earthquake Japan. The Collegium Vocale Gent, a highly regarded ensemble that helped open the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall two years ago, has canceled a June tour that was to have included three performances in and near Tokyo because of concerns over nuclear safety brought on by the March quake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant, resulting in releases of radiation. The Collegium tour was also to have included several stops in China. The group was to perform Bach's B minor Mass. Because the work is religious in nature, Mr. De Laender said, Chinese officials needed to give special approval. The approval process was cut short when the group decided to cancel over safety concerns in Japan, he said, acknowledging that ''there might be a problem'' in gaining approval for a Mass performance in China. ''We were ready to do everything for approval,'' Mr. De Laender said. The issue of Chinese approval of performances by Westerners arose last month when Bob Dylan played in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International BEFORE THEY CAN REBUILD, [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OTSUCHI, Japan -- The crumpled cars have reddened with rust, and spring rains and a warming sun have left the ashes and mud hardened into an earthen plate of armor. But Satoshi Watanabe still comes every day to pick through the charred debris that was once his home, searching for the remains of his 2-month-old infant daughter. She was swept away by the tsunami that flattened much of this fishing town and killed his wife, mother and two other young daughters. Once he finds the missing child, Mr. Watanabe said, he will leave this town and its painful memories for good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toyota, whose operations have been severely disrupted since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, said Wednesday that its quarterly profit fell 77 percent but that it expected production to begin recovering up to two months sooner than previously forecast. Still, the automaker said it could not forecast earnings or production for the year ahead because of uncertainty about its ability to resume normal output levels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The world's leading supplier of electronic control chips for automobiles, whose main factory was heavily damaged by Japan's powerful earthquake, said it hoped to resume full shipments to customers by the end of October. The company, Renesas Electronics, controls about 40 percent of the world market for microcontrollers used in everything from the engine fuel injection to the power windows in automobiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

TOKYO -- The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has done more than spew radiation into the air and sea and force tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. It has blown a big hole in Japan's energy policy, which had assumed that nuclear power would supply a growing part of the country's needs. Prime Minister Naoto Kan and other government officials said over the weekend that Japan would not abandon nuclear power as an important energy source. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TOKYO WITH deep-tread tires and ample ground clearance, a rugged 4-wheel-drive Hummer or Jeep might seem the best choice for navigating through the wrecked cities of northeastern Japan. The areas pummeled by the earthquake and tsunami in March would surely be inhospitable for an electric vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

TOKYO -- In March 2008, the American ambassador in Tokyo sent a classified cable to Washington that contained a prophetic warning about the disaster preparedness of Japan, the United States' most important ally in Asia. The cable, sent by Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer, said Japan was preparing for earthquakes and even cyberattacks, but that it might prove less adept at responding to unforeseen disasters. ''Compartmentalization and risk aversion within the bureaucracy, however, could increase Japan's vulnerability to threats for which it is less prepared,'' warned the cable, dated March 18. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SHIBATA-MACHI, Japan -- When the ground shook violently on the afternoon of March 11, the ceiling collapsed in part of the huge Ricoh copier factory here, exposing the vents and wires above. The ceiling is still not fixed. But employees are back at their posts, working under temporary lighting and wearing hard hats to protect themselves in case debris falls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]