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The death toll in a powerful earthquake that rocked Japan’s Osaka on Monday has risen to five, with some 370 injured, officials said yesterday, urging vigilance against landslides ahead of heavy rains. The fifth fatality was a 66-year-old man who was found dead yesterday under a number of books and CDs in his home, a local government spokeswoman said.  The other casualties were a nine-year-old girl who was killed when a wall collapsed at her school following the 5.3-magnitude quake, along with two men and a woman, all in their 80s, who were trapped under a wall or furniture.  “The government will keep up efforts to rescue people,” top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters, though he added that there were no reports of missing people.  And he said officials would do “everything we can” to quickly restore gas and running water to homes cut off after the quake.  Japan’s meteorological agency meanwhile warned that heavy rains expected in Osaka on Tuesday and Wednesday could cause landslides in the region, with the quake potentially having loosened earth.  Suga also called for residents to be on alert, saying “landslide disasters are possible in the region that experienced strong tremors, even if rains are light.”  The weather agency said the region could see 50mm of rain by today morning and up to 100mm in the 24 hours after that to tomorrow morning.  “Normally we don’t issue warnings with this level of rains, but after the quake it could cause landslides, floods and swelling river streams,” official Masakatsu Oya told AFP.  Authorities have also warned of the possibility of strong aftershocks in the coming week and especially in the next two to three days.  A 4.0-magnitude aftershock hit the region early Tuesday, the meteorological agency said. Electricity outages caused by the quake have been resolved, but restoring gas and water will take longer, officials said.  Some 1,700 people remained in shelters by yesterday morning as some 250 houses were damaged, local media said. The education ministry also told AFP that it would instruct education boards nationwide to inspect school buildings, after the death of the nine-year-old girl at her school.   More than 500 primary and secondary schools in Osaka and four other prefectures suffered damage to their buildings including collapsed ceilings and broken window glass, the ministry official said.

Japan's Princess Takamado was seen by a witness in the Russian city of Saransk, where she will watch her national team compete in the soccer World Cup later on Tuesday. She is the first member of Japan's royal family to visit Russia since 1916, the Kyodo news agency reported. Relations between Moscow and Tokyo are currently strained over the rollout of a US missile system and Moscow's move this year to deploy warplanes to a group of disputed islands north of Japan. The dispute over the islands, which were seized by Soviet forces at the end of World War Two, is so acrimonious that Moscow and Tokyo have not yet signed a peace treaty to mark the end of the war. The princess, the widow of a cousin of Emperor Akihito, has no plans to meet with Russian dignitaries, Kyodo said, but will watch the Japanese soccer team take on Colombia and Senegal in the Russian cities of Saransk and Ekaterinburg.

Japan's two largest airlines have changed "Taiwan" to "China Taiwan" on their Chinese-language websites, officials said on Tuesday, sparking an immediate protest from the self-ruled island. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has demanded that dozens of international airlines make such a change despite US protests at what it called "Orwellian nonsense".  Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) said their alteration was made on June 12 and was meant to accommodate customers.  The description remains "Taiwan" on their websites in Japanese and other languages. "We made the judgement (to change the name) while consulting and reporting to the transport ministry and foreign ministry," said a spokesman at Japan Airlines. "The change came on June 12 as our preparations were done by then," he said. June 12 was the date of the historic summit between North Korea and the United States, which attracted international attention. "We chose a description that is easy to understand and acceptable for users of our websites," added the JAL official. A spokesman at ANA said the change was intended to make the description "easy to understand and acceptable for customers when they use our websites". "We do not mean any particular group of customers here but mean all customers," he said without elaborating. Taiwan's foreign ministry said it was lodging protests with the two airlines and demanded a correction to the "inappropriate title". "Chinese authorities once again are unreasonably pressuring Taiwan's international space," the ministry said, adding that such moves "only increase resentment among Taiwanese people and severely harm cross-strait relations". The airlines are not the only international carriers who have made the change recently, with Australia's Qantas earlier this month defending its decision to list Taiwan as part of China. The Chinese Civil Aviation Administration sent a notice to 36 foreign airlines in April, asking them to comply with Beijing's standard of referring to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as Chinese territories. Japan's ties with China are improving after years of acrimony over historical and territorial issues. Japan has close business ties with Taiwan but has acknowledged the "One China" policy, which describes the island as an integral part of China. Asked about the change, Japan's top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo was "not in favour of government authorities demanding certain measures from private companies based on a specific political stance".

A powerful earthquake rocked Japan’s second city of Osaka yesterday, killing three people including a nine-year-old girl and injuring more than 300, according to an official tally. Television images showed buildings swaying and burst pipes spewing water after the quake, which struck at the height of rush hour in the city of around 2mn.  However, there was no large-scale destruction and no tsunami warning issued after the earthquake, although commuters were stranded and tens of thousands were left without power. Among the casualties was a nine-year-old girl who died in the city of Takatsuki north of Osaka, reportedly trapped by a collapsed wall following the 5.3-magnitude quake. Local officials told AFP that the other two dead were an 80-year-old man – killed by a collapsing wall – and a 84-year-old man trapped under a bookcase in his home.  The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said more than 300 people were injured in total, but many of them suffered minor injuries. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters the government was “working united, with its first priority on saving people’s lives”.  “Gas supply has still been stopped at more than 100,000 houses while water outage continued in large areas,” Abe told his ministers and government officials later in the day. “I want you to make your utmost effort to restore public transport as well as gas and water supplies,” he added.  And government spokesman Yoshihide Suga cautioned there was a possibility of strong aftershocks. “Large-scale quakes are likely to happen in the next two to three days,” he told reporters. Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where many of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded. On March 11, 2011, a devastating magnitude 9.0 quake struck under the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and claimed thousands of lives. It also sent three reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing Japan’s worst postwar disaster and the most serious nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. Local residents described the moment the quake jolted the highly urbanised area at 8am, when platforms would have been heaving with passengers waiting to board their commuter trains.  “The floor moved violently. It was a strong vertical jolt. Nearly all of the dishes fell and shattered on the floor,” said Kaori Iwakiri, a 50-year-old nurse in Moriguchi just north of Osaka city. “My parents suffered a blackout and they have no water. I plan to take water to them now.”  Despite its relatively low magnitude, the quake caused quite a shake, registering a lower six on the Japanese experiential scale of up to seven – meaning it is hard to stay standing. Eiji Shibuya, 52, said the tremor reminded him of the devastating 1995 Kobe earthquake, which killed nearly 6,500 people. “I was stunned. I couldn’t do anything,” he told AFP from Itami, a city near Osaka. “I was worried about my son as he had just left for his high school. I was relieved when I confirmed he was safe.”  NHK showed footage of firefighters tackling a blaze that ripped through a home north of Osaka. A number of train services were suspended, including the “shinkansen” bullet train, as multiple smaller aftershocks followed the quake. Some 80 flights were cancelled, according to NHK, and TV footage showed huge queues of travellers, including many foreign tourists, waiting for taxis as local train services remained suspended in large parts of the region. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it had detected no problems at its local atomic power plants, but some companies including Honda said they had suspended operations at local plants. Kansai Electric said on its website that around 170,000 homes in the Osaka region were briefly left without power. Shunsuke Kosaka, an Osaka government official, told AFP an evacuation advisory had been issued to 12 households as it was forecast to rain in the region, possibly triggering landslides.   Around 850 people were evacuated to shelters, a local government spokesman told AFP.  Some 40 soldiers were deployed to areas where the water supply was damaged. Local officials also issued a warning against spreading fake news online after a tweet claiming a zebra was on the loose after the quake went viral.

* Three killed in Japan by falling walls, furniture in 6.1 quake * No irregularities reported at nuclear plants * Panasonic, Daihatsu halted production at factories * TV footage shows house on fire, burst water mains * Japan PM says priority is safety of residents A magnitude 6.1 earthquake shook Osaka, Japan's second-biggest metropolis, early on Monday morning, killing three people, halting factory lines in a key industrial area and bursting water mains, government officials and broadcaster NHK said. No tsunami warning was issued. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said authorities were assessing damage and that their top priority was the safety of residents. At least 234 people were injured, public broadcaster NHK said. Live footage showed burst water mains and a house on fire after the quake hit Osaka, which will host next year's Group of 20 summit, just before 8 am (local time) as commuters were heading to work. Quakes are common in Japan, part of the seismically active "Ring of Fire" that sweeps from the South Pacific islands through Indonesia and Japan, across to Alaska and down the west coast of North, Central and South America. The epicentre of Monday's earthquake was just north of Osaka city at a depth of 13 km, said the Japan Meteorological Agency. The agency originally put the magnitude at 5.9 but later raised it to 6.1. The quake struck an important industrial area of central Japan. Osaka-based Panasonic said it was halting production at three of its plants. Daihatsu Motor Co, a unit of Toyota Motor Corp, stopped its factories in Osaka and Kyoto while it checked for damage. Tractor maker Kubota Corp. said it halted two plants in the area, while air conditioner maker Daikin Industries Ltd suspended operations at two plants, one of which resumed by noon. Honda Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors said they were resuming operations after temporary suspensions and safety checks. Sharp Corp also resumed work at a joint venture plant with parent Hon Hai Precision Industry that it had stopped for safety checks. NHK and other Japanese media said collapsing walls had killed an 80-year-old man and a 9-year-old girl, and that another man in his 80s was killed after being crushed by a toppling bookcase. The government confirmed two of the deaths. 'Terrified, confused' "We were sleeping and it woke us up abruptly," said Kate Kilpatrick, 19, an American who was staying in a hotel in Osaka when the quake hit. "It was so terrifying because this is my first earthquake. I thought it was a nightmare because I was so confused," she said. "The whole world was aggressively shaking." Kilpatrick, visiting Japan for the first time, said alarms went off almost immediately in the hotel and a loudspeaker told guests to stay away from windows. No irregularities were detected at the Mihama, Takahama and Ohi nuclear plants to the north of Osaka, Kansai Electric Power said. More than 170,000 households in Osaka and neighbouring Hyogo prefecture lost power temporarily but it was restored within two hours, the utility said. Osaka prefecture, which includes the city and surrounding areas, has a population of 8.8 million. The city is close to Kobe, which was hit by a deadly magnitude 6.9 quake in 1995. A massive 9.0 quake hit much further to the north in March 2011, triggering a huge tsunami that killed some 18,000 people and triggered the world's worst nuclear disaster in a quarter of a century at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Japan introduced a law after the Kobe quake requiring owners of large buildings such as hotels and hospitals to have their buildings inspected for earthquake resistance. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday called on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to jointly overcome their mutual distrust, as he confirmed ongoing efforts to arrange a Japan-North Korea summit. In a television interview, Abe said his government has contacted the North Korean side “through various channels” in a bid to arrange a meeting with Kim. During historic talks with US President Donald Trump in Singapore on Tuesday, Kim reportedly said he was open to a meeting with Abe. Japan wants the talks to push the emotive issue of citizens abducted by the North decades ago, which has seen little movement despite a whirlwind of international diplomacy in recent months.“I want to take a step forward and resolve the (abduction) issue after each of us breaks our mutual distrust,” Abe said. “I have a strong sense of mission to resolve the issue under my own responsibility,” he added. Abe has already said publicly that he would be willing to meet Kim in order to resolve the abduction issue. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono is considering talks with his North Korean counterpart on the sidelines of a meeting of Asean envoys in Singapore starting in late July, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. During the interview, Abe expressed a readiness to finance denuclearisation costs in North Korea. In the joint statement following Tuesday’s talks with Trump, Kim agreed to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.” “It is natural for Japan and other countries which would benefit from easing fears of nuclear weapons to bear the costs,” Abe said. But Abe warned that Tokyo has no plan to give financial aid to Pyongyang without a resolution of the abduction issue. The issue of Japanese citizens who were abducted in the 1970s and 1980s to help Pyongyang train its spies has long soured already strained relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang. The Japanese government has officially listed 17 people as abductees, but suspects dozens more were snatched. Japan has maintained a hardline position on North Korea despite the stepped-up diplomacy with Pyongyang in recent months, and has been left largely on the sidelines as South Korea, China and the United States have held talks with Kim.

Japan is working to arrange a meeting between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Kim Jong Un after the North Korean leader said he was open to talks, local media reported Thursday. The Sankei Shimbun said Kim discussed the possibility during historic talks Tuesday with US President Donald Trump. ‘During the summit with Trump, Kim told Trump 'I can meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,'‘ the Sankei reported. Japan wants the talks to push the emotive issue of citizens abducted by the North decades ago, which has seen little movement despite a whirlwind of diplomacy in recent months. Government officials are weighing several scenarios, including Abe visiting Pyongyang in August, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Thursday. Another scenario would see Abe meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the sidelines of a conference in Russia in September, the daily said. Several Japanese media outlets said Thursday that Kim had expressed a readiness to meet Abe when he held a historic summit earlier this week with US President Donald Trump. And Abe has already said publicly that he would meet Kim in order to resolve the abduction issue. Japanese foreign ministry officials plan to hold talks with North Korean officials at an international security conference in Mongolia this week as they try to firm up plans, local media said. ‘If (Abe's) visit to Pyongyang in August proves difficult,’ he could hold talks with Kim on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Russia's Vladivostok in September, the Yomiuri said. Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga declined to confirm the reports, telling reporters Thursday ‘nothing has been decided at the moment.’ ‘If a Japan-North Korea summit takes place, it is extremely important that it would lead to a solution of the nuclear, missile, and above all, abduction issues,’ he added. The issue of Japanese citizens who were abducted in the 1970s and 1980s to help Pyongyang train its spies has long soured already strained relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang. The Japanese government has officially listed 17 people as abductees, but there are strong suspicions that dozens more were snatched. Abe will meet later Thursday with relatives of those abducted and pledge to resolve the issue in talks with Kim, local media said. Japan has repeatedly called for the issue to be raised in discussions with Pyongyang, and Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that he had discussed the issue with Kim. Japan has maintained a hardline position on North Korea despite the stepped-up diplomacy with Pyongyang in recent months, and has been left largely on the sidelines as South Korea and the United States have held talks with Kim. Kim and Trump signed a document on Tuesday after their talks in which the North Korean leader reaffirmed his commitment to ‘work toward complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula’, without giving further details. It made no reference to other weapons capabilities, including the missiles that North Korea has fired over Japan, nor to people abducted by North Korea.

A woman was killed and three other people injured Monday as a car driven by a 90-year-old driver ploughed into pedestrians in eastern Japan, officials said. The car mounted the kerb near a busy crossroads in Chigasaki city, southwest of the capital Tokyo, hitting four pedestrians, a local police spokesman said. ‘One female victim was later confirmed dead and three others -- two women and one man -- were injured,’ he added. The spokesman confirmed the female driver was 90 years old. Police were still investigating the cause of the accident. Local media said the driver was also slightly injured. A series of fatal crashes caused by elderly drivers in Japan has left authorities grappling for ways to clamp down on the problem. Drivers over 65 were responsible for 965 deadly accidents in Japan -- more than a quarter of the total -- in 2016, according to the National Police Agency. Most accidents caused by elderly drivers resulted from them mixing up the accelerator and the brake or losing control of the steering wheel.

Participants carry a portable shrine or “Mikoshi” outside Sensoji Temple in the Asakusa district during the annual Sanja Matsuri festival in Tokyo. Sanja Matsuri festival is a celebration for the three founders of Sensoji Temple in the Asakusa neighbourhood with nearly 2mn people visiting during the three-day event.

A former aide to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave highly anticipated testimony yesterday to a parliamentary investigation into a cronyism scandal that is undermining Abe’s support, but he did not make any startling revelations.  The scandal, one of several that have raised questions about how long Abe can hold onto office, centres on allegations the prime minister helped a friend get permission to open a veterinary school in a special economic zone. Yesterday, former Abe aide Tadao Yanase told parliament that he had indeed had dealings with the school operator, the director of which is Abe’s friend, but said neither he nor Abe had intervened to help win approval for the school.  Nihon University professor Tomoaki Iwai said Yanase’s testimony was neither a body-blow for Abe, nor would if dispel voters’ suspicions about his behaviour. “This is a testimony well within the realm of expectations ... I don’t think voters’ distrust has been wiped out. It is unlikely his support will bounce right up,” Iwai said.  Yanase acknowledged for the first time that he had met officials from the educational institution called Kake Gakuen three times in the first half of 2015. The institution’s director, Kotaro Kake, is an old friend of Abe’s. Abe has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the affair. Yanase, now a senior official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, repeated an earlier assertion that he had not given Kake Gakuen any preferential treatment, and that Abe had never told him to do so.  Abe is hoping to win a third term as ruling Liberal Democratic Party leader in a September vote. He needs the party top job to stay on as prime minister. Victory in the party poll would set Abe, who took office in 2012 pledging to reboot the economy and bolster defence, on track to become Japan’s longest-serving premier. But opposition lawmakers have called for him to resign.  The Asahi newspaper reported last month that Yanase had told authorities in 2015 that the plan for the veterinary school in a government-designated deregulation zone was a “prime ministerial matter” and they should work hard to realise it.

A rare series of sketches of Japanese manga artist Osamu Tezuka's robot character Astro Boy sold for a record 269,400 euros in an auction in Paris Saturday. ‘It's a world record for this artist whose works are few in the market,’ said Eric Leroy, an expert on comic strips in the auction house Artcurial. The winning bid was five times the pre-sale estimate and Leroy put this down to ‘the rarity and exceptional character’ of the China ink and water colour strip measuring 35 centimetres by 25 centimetres. It drawn at the end of the 1950s and comprises six panels showing Astro Boy fighting an enemy. The buyer was a ‘European collector who had been dreaming for a long time’ of buying the sketch, he said. ‘Astro Boy is an emblematic work which has nursed a whole generation of collectors,’ he said. Astro Boy was serialised in Japan from 1952 to 1968 centred around an android with human emotions who is sold to a robot circus but saved from servitude by a professor who creates a robotic family for him.

Japan's iconic Mount Fuji could paralyse Tokyo with ash if it erupted, choking roads and halting water supplies, according to a government disaster planning study, a news report said Tuesday. The snow-capped peak of the country's highest mountain 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of Tokyo is a symbol of Japan -- and is also an active volcano. It last erupted in 1707, but while it has not shown any signs of life in recent decades a potential eruption now could shower more than 10 centimetres (4 inches) of ash on central Tokyo, according to a government study seen by the Kyodo news agency. The ash would paralyse the capital, rendering roads impassable and stopping the flow of goods and people. The study found just 0.5 centimetres of ash could cause mechanical problems for cars and more than one centimetre could cause mass power outages and the failure of water filtration systems, Kyodo reported. Noriko Urata, an official in charge of disaster research, confirmed the government is assessing the possible impact of an eruption and preparing measures to deal with the scenario. ‘But we are not in a position to unveil details,’ he told AFP. In the past, the government has estimated that an eruption could result in damage and losses worth over 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion). ‘But if we include the impact on aviation and other transportation as well as secondary infrastructure, the cost could be far more than two trillion yen,’ said Toshiyasu Nagao, head of Tokai University's Earthquake Prediction Research Centre. ‘Mount Fuji is categorised a young volcano,’ Nagao told AFP. ‘It would be no surprise if Mount Fuji erupts any time in the near future.’ Japan, with more than 110 active volcanoes, sits on the so-called Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ where a large proportion of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded. In January, a Japanese soldier was killed and several other people injured after an eruption near a popular ski resort in northwest of Tokyo. On September 27, 2014, Japan suffered its deadliest eruption in almost 90 years when Mount Ontake, in central Nagano prefecture, burst unexpectedly to life. An estimated 63 people were killed in the shock eruption which occurred as the peak was packed with hikers out to see the region's spectacular autumn colours.

A thief who fled an open jail in Japan sparking a high-profile manhunt involving some 15,000 officers was taken into custody on Monday, police said, more than three weeks after his escape. Tatsuma Hirao, 27, a ‘model’ inmate who was serving time for multiple thefts, was arrested on a street near Hiroshima railway station in western Japan, a local police spokesman told AFP. He was captured some 70 kilometres (40 miles) west of Mukaishima island, where police had deployed helicopters, drones, police dogs and infrared detectors to find him. Hundreds of officers a day were sent to the island for the manhunt with the total number reportedly reaching around 15,000 since early April, local media said. Hirao told investigators that he escaped from the island by swimming across the sea, according to public broadcaster NHK. Television footage showed Hirao, who was unshaven and wearing a black shirt, taken by several police officers to a police vehicle. The case has made headline news in Japan with TV channels picking over the manhunt in minute detail. Hirao gave guards the slip on April 8, vanishing from the facility, an ‘open institution’ where inmates can walk around freely. Police detected the fugitive's fingerprints and several thefts have been reported since his escape. The stolen items include socks, a mobile phone, a wallet, a pair of sandals and a car key, whose owner found a polite note -- apparently from the fugitive -- saying: ‘I'm borrowing your car but I'll never damage it.’ Justice Minister Yoko Kawakami made a rare apology for the difficulties in recapturing the criminal. ‘I deeply apologise to local residents and many people for troubling and worrying them for such a long time,’ Kawakami said in a statement, adding that her ministry will take preventive measures. A total of 20 inmates have escaped since the prison opened in 1961. Japan enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in the developed world but has a relatively high reoffending rate.

A 117-year-old Japanese woman, thought to be the world's oldest person, has died, a local official told AFP on Sunday. Nabi Tajima, who was born on August 4, 1900, died around 8:00 pm on Saturday at a hospital on her native Kikai Island in Kagoshima region, according to Susumu Yoshiyuki, a health and welfare official. Tajima, who became the oldest woman in Japan in September 2015, could have been the oldest person in the world since Violet Brown of Jamaica died in September 2017 at age 117, Japanese media said. Since Brown's death, Guinness World Records has been investigating who is the oldest person in the world and was yet to recognise Tajima as such. The oldest man in the world is 112-year-old Masazo Nonaka of Japan, the organisation announced on April 10. "Ms Tajima was living at a nursing centre for the elderly. In January, she became weaker, so she was taken to a local hospital," Yoshiyuki told AFP. "She died there (Saturday) due to her advanced age," he said. Japan is known for the longevity of its people and has been home to several oldest title holders. There are around 68,000 people aged 100 or older in the country, the government said last year.

A volcano in Japan erupted on Thursday, shooting clouds of smoke and rocks into the sky, and prompting authorities to ban access to the peak, but there were no reports of any damage or casualties. The eruption of Io Yama, a 1,298 m (4,258 ft) high volcano on the southernmost main island of Kyushu, was the latest in a series of eruptions in Japan this year. One person has been killed. Television footage showed grayish smoke jetting from several spots on the side of the mountain in the Kirishima range, in a rural area about 985 km (616 miles) from Tokyo. A warning level for Io Yama was raised to ‘3’ from ‘2’ on Japan's 5-level scale, with the Japan Meteorological Agency warning that volcanic rocks could be hurled as far as 2 km (1.2 miles). In January, a member of the military was killed and 11 people injured, some critically, when Kusatsu-Shirane volcano rained rocks down on skiers at a resort in central Japan. Two months later, Shinmoedake - a volcano which featured in a 1960s James Bond movie, and in the same Kirishima range as Io Yama - shot smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky. Japan has 110 active volcanoes and monitors 47 of them around the clock. In September 2014, 63 people were killed on Mount Ontake, the worst volcanic toll in Japan for nearly 90 years.

More than 40 people at a Japanese immigration detention centre are on hunger strike after an Indian detainee committed suicide there last week, officials and local media said Tuesday. The protest began on Sunday, two days after an Indian national in his thirties, who has not been publicly identified, was found hanged in a shower stall at the centre in Ibaraki, northeast of Tokyo. The man was reportedly depressed about how long it was taking for his status to be adjudicated by authorities. "We presume that they (the strikers) have refused food to push for provisional release," said Daisuke Akinaga, an official at the immigration centre. "We also presume that the suicide set off the hunger strike," Akinaga told AFP. He declined to comment on the nationality of the strikers or how many people were refusing food, but Kyodo News said more than 40 detainees were involved. About 330 people are being held at the immigration centre, according to the officials there. Japan has strict immigration laws and accepts very few asylum seekers, granting refugee status to just 20 people out of nearly 20,000 applicants last year. The government says most applicants are economic migrants, but activists and the UN say Japan imposes onerous evidence requirements that can be impossible to meet, even for those in real danger. Activists, lawyers and migrants in Japan have complained for years about harsh treatment by some immigration officials and dire conditions at detention centres. They have also urged the country to review its policy on detaining people at immigration centres for lengthy periods of time. "Detention periods are abnormally long in Japan," said Hiromitsu Masuda, of rights group Provisional Release Association in Japan. "Such protests are likely to be repeated unless Japan changes the policy," Masuda told AFP. Activists say asylum seekers wait an average of three years for a decision on their status, and that even for those granted permission to stay, integration can be difficult.

A 5.6-magnitude quake hit western Japan early Monday, injuring five people and damaging buildings and roads, as officials warned stronger tremors could come in the days ahead. The shallow tremor was gauged as magnitude 5.6 by the US Geological Survey and 6.1 by Japan's meteorological agency on the Richter scale. It rocked the west of the main island of Honshu, 96 kilometres (60 miles) north of Hiroshima, at 1:32am (1632 GMT Sunday). The Japanese agency urged residents to stay vigilant. ‘We want the areas that experienced strong tremors to be on guard in the coming week or so against quakes that could be as powerful as the upper five,’ agency official Toshiyuki Matsumori told a news conference, referring to a Japanese seismic scale with a maximum intensity of seven. An upper five on Japan's Shindo scale refers to tremors that make it difficult to walk without holding onto something. Strong aftershocks could continue for two to three days, Matsumori said, and several strong tremors have already been felt in the region hit by the initial quake. Five people were hurt in the quake, including a 17-year-old boy who broke his leg after falling from his bed, but no life-threatening injuries were reported. Around 100 households lost water in Oda City, prompting troops to send trucks to set up makeshift water supply stations. Damage to some buildings and roads were also reported. No problems were reported at the nearby Shimane nuclear power station, which has been offline for a checkup. Japan sits on the so-called Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ where a large proportion of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded. A devastating magnitude 9.0 quake -- which struck under the Pacific Ocean on March 11, 2011 -- and a resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and claimed the lives of thousands of people.

One third of central Tokyo could be left under water and nearly four million people affected if a super typhoon strikes the capital causing storm surges, a new study from local authorities has warned. The Tokyo metropolitan government unveiled its first estimate of the Japanese capital's vulnerability to damage from typhoon-related high tidal waves Friday, as risks of storm damage continue to increase globally. According to the report, 212 square kilometres (85 square miles), or one third of the capital's central area, could be inundated to a maximum depth of 10 metres (33 feet) if a super typhoon creates high tidal waves. A severe event of this type would be estimated to affect as many as 3.95 million people in the city, flooding business and entertainment districts as well as major railway stations, the local government said. Tokyo has a population of 13.7 million people. In particular, Tokyo's eastern zone near Arakawa river would be flooded for more than a week if rising tidal waves at Tokyo Port break through river levees. Based on the estimate, the Tokyo government said it plans to update evacuation measures and review how it sends warning messages to local residents. Big storms regularly hit the Japanese archipelago, triggering landslides and floods that have often led to sizable casualties.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his ratings in a slump amid a suspected cronyism scandal and cover-up, apologised again on Sunday for causing anxiety and loss of confidence in his government. Protesters urged Abe to resign, as riot police kept tight security outside the venue of his ruling party's annual convention, at which the premier stressed his intention to revise Japan's pacifist post-war, US-drafted constitution. Abe faces his biggest political crisis since taking office in December 2012 as suspicions swirl about a sale of state-owned land at a huge discount to a nationalist school operator with ties to his wife. "This problem has shaken the people's confidence in the administration," Abe told the convention. "As head of the government, I keenly feel my responsibility and would like to deeply apologise to the people." He pledged a thorough clarification of the facts and the prevention of a recurrence by pulling the government together, but offered no sign of stepping down. Abe has denied that he or his wife intervened in the sale or that he sought to alter documents related to the deal. His close ally, Finance Minister Taro Aso, has also denied involvement in the alterations made by ministry officials. Public opinion polls last weekend showed support for Abe's cabinet sinking as low as 31 percent, with majorities saying he bears some responsibility for the affair. The sliding support rates could dash Abe's hopes of winning a third three-year term as ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader in a party vote in September, victory in which would set him on track to become Japan's longest ruling premier. Also at the party convention, the LDP adopted a proposal to revise the pacifist constitution in line with a plan floated by Abe last year to explicitly refer to the Self-Defense Forces, as Japan's military is known. "The time has finally come to tackle constitutional revision, which has been a task since the founding of the party," Abe said. "Let's stipulate the Self-Defense Forces and put an end to a controversy about violation of the constitution." Abe proposed last May that the first two clauses of Article 9, which renounces the right to wage war and bans maintenance of a standing military, be unchanged but that a reference to the SDF be added to clarify its ambiguous status. Despite its literal ban on a standing army, successive governments have interpreted the charter to allow a military exclusively to defence. Abe wants to make that stance clear in the constitution itself, but says the change will not alter Japan's security policies. Critics worry the revision would open the way to a bigger role for the military overseas. Abe's weakened support and a wary junior coalition partner could make it hard for the LDP to push for the change, which would spark a divisive debate. Japan's constitution has never been amended and any changes require approval by two-thirds of each house of parliament and a majority in a public referendum.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing his biggest political crisis since taking office more than five years ago, as suspicions swirl about a land sale to a school operator with ties to his wife. Abe has denied that he or his wife, Akie, intervened in the heavily discounted sale of state-owned land to the school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, or that he sought to alter documents related to the deal. Finance Minister Taro Aso, a close Abe ally, has also denied involvement in alterations officials in his ministry made to the documents. But a spate of weekend opinion polls showed support for Abe's cabinet sinking as low as 31 percent, with majorities saying he bears some responsibility. The sagging support could dash his hopes of winning a third three-year term as leader of the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a September party election. A victory would put him on track to become Japan's longest-serving premier. Below are possible scenarios for Abe's political future. ABE'S RATINGS RECOVER, HE WINS THIRD TERM Last year, Abe, 63, also saw his ratings plummet over the Moritomo land deal and other matters. The LDP suffered a historic trouncing in a Tokyo assembly election. But he recovered in the polls, and his LDP-led coalition won a two-thirds ‘super majority’ in a snap lower house election in October, helped by fragmentation of the opposition parties, low turnout and his stern stance toward North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. That could happen again, especially if there are no further big revelations in the Moritomo affair, no fresh scandals appear and Abe demonstrates skill on the diplomatic front. Abe could decide to sacrifice Aso - who has said he has no intention of resigning - but that could backfire by focusing criticism even more firmly on the prime minister and depriving him of a ‘breakwater’ against public ire. If his ratings recover and his backers in the LDP hold firm, Abe could win a third term as party leader and stay in office into 2021. ABE RESIGNS BEFORE SEPTEMBER If Abe's ratings fall further and stay low, he may decide to step down before the September vote, although having quit once, he is probably reluctant to do so again. Abe abruptly resigned in 2007 after a year in office plagued by scandals in his cabinet, a deadlocked parliament and poor health. If he steps down, Abe may try to throw his support behind former foreign minister Fumio Kishida, 60, to succeed him with backing from other party heavyweights. Kishida now serves as LDP policy chief. The LDP would have to hold a special leadership vote, but could just poll members of parliament rather than including rank-and-file members. That would give Kishida, a low-key lawmaker seen as less hawkish than Abe, an edge over former defence minister Shigeru Ishiba, who is popular with the party as a whole but less so among lawmakers. Both Kishida and Ishiba have expressed concerns about Japan's bulging public debt. ABE LIMPS TO SEPTEMBER A weakened Abe could last until September, when he could step aside or run again and face a potentially fierce face-off with Ishiba. If other rivals also throw their hats in the ring, the anti-Abe vote could be divided enough for him to eke out a victory. But if that happened, he could have trouble pushing his controversial agenda of revising the pacifist, post-war constitution and deregulating the labour market. The election would include votes by both members of parliament and the rank-and-file, which could give Ishiba, 61, an advantage. Internal Affairs Minister Seiko Noda, 57, has also expressed a desire to run, but is thought to have little chance of winning.